guidance – Page 40 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Australia’s Safety Week

The last week of October each year is Safety Week in Australia. It exists under different names in each State but everyone coordinates events for the same time each year. Below are some links for further information, some are more developed than others.

In 2009, I was a Safety Ambassador for Safe Work Australia and found that if one was prepared to give, the rewards were ten-fold.

If you are in Australia I strongly recommend attending one of the many free OHS information events. If you are outside Australia, regularly check the Australia OHS regulator websites for some innovative approaches to safety and its promotion.

Australian Capital Territory (yes, the ACT has a month of activities)

Western Australia

South Australia

Kevin Jones

New UK podcast on drilling regulation

HSE podcasts are almost always worth listening to. The June 2010 podcast capitalises on the topicality of offshore oil drilling generated by the BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico.

The podcast is available for listening online

The important element of the podcast is whether such deepwater drilling incidents could occur elsewhere? This is useful not only for the UK jurisdiction but for Europe and Australia.

The interview discusses the value of a “safety case” regulatory regime and the disadvantages of a prescriptive regime.

Interestingly the UK wells are individually notified to HSE almost a month before drilling is due to commence. This allows for an assessment of the well design and structure prior to activation.

Clearly, this approach stems from the Piper Alpha explosion in 1988. The BP Gulf incident can be considered the United States’ Piper Alpha.

It raises the question of did BP, an English company that should have been well aware of the usefulness of the safety case approach to drilling, apply a different approach to its Gulf drilling contractors to that applied elsewhere, and why? Was BP really committed to “best practice” in safety, or as it called it “beyond the best“?

UK to see similar OHS review to Australia’s

England seems set to have the same debate over OHS laws as Australia has been having recently – a debate that focuses on compliance rather than the establishment of a safe workplace.

UK business groups clearly see Lord Young of Graffham as being like-minded. On 15 June 2010 Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs of the British Chamber of Commerce is reported to have said:

“While it’s absolutely crucial for employers to take steps to ensure people are safe in the workplace, the proliferation of health and safety rules has resulted in more bureaucracy and less common sense… Lord Young should look to reduce the number of health and safety processes and costs businesses have to face”.

Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses said :

“Our members want the Government to think small first so that health and safety laws stick with small employers, so that they can comply”.

Big business want safety to cost less, small business want to comply – same attitudes as in Australia. Continue reading “UK to see similar OHS review to Australia’s”

US workplace bullying interview with Gary Namie

Ben Merens of Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Gary Namie of the Bullying Institute on 26 May 2010 for 45 minutes on his At Issue radio program. The interview is very timely as new “Healthy Workplace” legislation is being considered in the United States.

What was useful in this interview was that the discussion centred on workplace bullying and Namie summarised how this is substantially different from schoolyard bullying – a significant difference which requires different methods of control. Namie says that although bullying in childhood is significant, the impact on an adult of similar treatment may have longer lasting effects.

The broadcast, of course, applies to the US context principally but Namie has a long and strong international reputation in workplace bullying advice and deserves an audience. Tellingly, Namie says that the comparison for workplace bullying is not schoolyard bullying but domestic violence.

In 2001, Namie provided me with a review copy the 2000 edition of The Bully At Work for the SafetyATWORK magazine. The review is available HERE.

Kevin Jones

Guidance on the impacts of a workplace death

A short time after a traumatic death of a family member will cause the family to feel they are in a mental spin. Not only are the usual funeral arrangements required but there can seem to be involvement in a personal loss from a mess of government departments and legal bodies.

It is not expected that all families have a manual to life and death but there is information for families who may have to face a workplace death. Perhaps, more importantly, this information should be read by safety professionals so that they understand the social and familial complexities of workplace incidents. Companies may call in the lawyers but there is also an obligation to their employees and families and guides, like the Kit for Families produced by the Workplace Tragedy Family Support Group, may help put all the processes into perspective.

Other online guidance material is available from

The Victorian Trades Hall Council

WorkCover New South Wales

SafeWork SA

One regulator’s perspective can be found at Health & Safety Executive

SafetyAtWorkBlog readers are welcome to suggest other similar online guidelines.

Kevin Jones

In ROPS we trust

Roll Over Protective Structures (ROPS) are a standard safety design feature on many items of agricultural equipment from tractors to quad bikes. But ROPS do not prevent a rollover, only minimise the risk of injury from a rollover.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has issued a safety alert over a tractor ROPS that failed. The background for the safety alert is:

“A 180 hp tractor towing a 7.8 tonne trailer was travelling at approximately 20 km/h along a single lane bitumen road. To enable a vehicle to pass, the tractor was driven to the side of the road which was corrugated with a sharp drop off and steep drain nearby. When driven back onto the road, the attached trailer slipped down the steep incline into the drain pulling the rear of the tractor sideways. This caused the tractor to roll over, which resulted in the failure of the ROPS fitted to the tractor. The driver suffered fatal injuries.”

Kevin Jones

Exploding restaurant kettle risks

WorkSafeBC is a regular provider of useful safety videos. In mid-April 2010 the regulator released a latest video that reports on an exploding soup kettle in a restaurant that injured several workers with steel shrapnel and steam.

Safety prevention videos are costly to produce properly and WorkSafeBC has followed a process that is informative and simple but providing a slide show with an audio commentary. This is a technique that makes use of the many incident photos that OHS investigators take without compromising the investigation and still offering a much more attractive and appealing safety alert. It is a technique that other OHS regulators should consider.

Kevin Jones

Category: guidance

Australia’s Safety Week

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New UK podcast on drilling regulation

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UK to see similar OHS review to Australia’s

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US workplace bullying interview with Gary Namie

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Guidance on the impacts of a workplace death

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In ROPS we trust

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Exploding restaurant kettle risks

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