hazards – Page 86 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Preparing for occupational violence in fast food outlets

On 17 December 2010, the parents of Luke Adams were abused outside a court in Melbourne, Australia. The mother of the killer of Luke Adams berated the parents after her son received further time in jail.

SafetyAtWorkBlog touched on Luke Adams’ death in an article in 2009 in which we pointed out that several violent deaths had occurred in, and around, fast-food restaurants and yet there is little focus on the role of the restaurants in these incidents.

On 4 January 2011, the media is reporting that McDonalds has issued a security warning to its restaurants after a couple of violent robberies on its Victorian stores in the last few days.

Such acts in fast-food establishments are particularly worrying because of the young age of many workers in the sector. Over this holiday period in Australia, many teenagers experience their first “real” work in fast-food outlets and other than working very long shifts (that’s a different story) the experience should present them with a positive approach to work. Continue reading “Preparing for occupational violence in fast food outlets”

Conkers and risk assessments

In September 2007, UK’s Health & Safety Executive produced a safety poster on the myth of students wearing safety goggles while playing conkers. HSE did not demystify the issue by examining the origin of the myth and only chose to debunk the myth.

The February 2011 edition of the Fortean Times provides a little more detail on the origin of the myth in its “mythconceptions” column. It reports on primary school teacher, Shaun Halfpenny’s, claim about starting the myth. Continue reading “Conkers and risk assessments”

The Social Media is the Message

Melody Kemp in Vientiane writes:

The apoplectic brouhaha that greeted Wikileaks in the past few months has shown us the power of the internet to upstage, discomfit and enrage. Governments like corporations operate under a variety of ‘commercial-in-confidence’ scores, the cadence of which changes with the degree of self interest at hand. That Wikileaks has been disclosing documents for years is of no consequence to our reactionary leaders. Just as labour groups and activists, long been warning industry about workplace hazards, have been greeted with similarly leaden ears.

Earlier this year, a delegation of international labour activists and trade union leaders visited Laos. While being taken around various work sites by Lao trade union and government officials, they were horrified to find bags of asbestos labeled Produced In China in one roofing tile fabrication shop. They should not have been surprised. The nominal communist bloc states of Asia have close trade, military and strategic ties. In that bloc the proletariat has little status and, like mushrooms, are generally kept in the dark.

One of Lao’s four Vice Presidents is known to foster and enjoy close and at times unseemly business relationships with Yunnan, Continue reading “The Social Media is the Message”

Make buying a business a safe choice

A recent prosecution by SafeWorkSA illustrates an odd situation but one of considerable importance.

The media release of 15 December 2010 reports on the the penalties given to Hermes Precisa Pty Ltd (A$24,600) and Salmat Document Management Solutions Pty Ltd (A$22,400) for breaches of OHS law in May 2008. The circumstances of the offence are:

” A male plant operator was working with a large guillotine to remove the spines from stationery, when his fingertips were crushed by the clamp of the machine, necessitating their eventual amputation. He remains employed by the company.

The investigation revealed that the employee had received only verbal training and instruction on the use of the machine, and was required to use a wooden block to square up stacks of papers that were to be trimmed.

SafeWork SA told the court that the wooden block was insufficient to protect the worker’s hand and neither company provided safe systems of work for the task involved. A purpose-built blocking tool that did protect the operator’s hand had been lost a year previously. “

The obvious lesson from the incident is in the last paragraph – maintain safety equipment and replace what is broken or lost.

But the curious element of the prosecution is that it is rare for two companies to be prosecuted and guilty for the one offence. Continue reading “Make buying a business a safe choice”

West Australian farmer found dead under his quadbike

WorkSafe WA has reported on a quad-bike related death of a 68-year-old man in the evening of 12 December 2010. Details are scarce as OHS inspectors have only been able to attend the scene this morning.

The WorkSafe media release (soon to be available online) states:

“WorkSafe is investigating the work-related death of a 68-year-old man on a farm at Crooked Brook, near Dardanup south of Bunbury, last night.
The farmer was believed to have left his house to move cows from one paddock to another. When he did not return, a family member went to look for him and found him under an upturned quad bike.”

Details of the type of terrain, safety features of the quad bike and the type of PPE on site were not available at the time of writing. Continue reading “West Australian farmer found dead under his quadbike”

Powerful OHS stories on YouTube

Yossi Berger recently criticized the award-winning “Homecoming” ads of WorkSafe that have been rebroadcast in the US. Berger said that the awareness raising ads do not contribute to saving lives.

Workplace Health & Safety Queensland has produced a series of survivor stories that, if the wider working community gets to see them, are an enlightening view of the reality of work-related injuries. The latest film in the series is “Between a rock and a hard place – The Garry Nichols story” and concerns the impact of a tractor roll-over.

The films benefit enormously from the analysis of contributing factors to the incident. Continue reading “Powerful OHS stories on YouTube”

Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes

The smoke from the mine:

It has been a frighteningly bad month in the mining industry internationally. OHS meetings I attended during this period have been hushed as a result of the New Zealand tragedies. Discussions about OHS have become more pertinent and more accurate – for the time being. But this, like stunning but short-lived cactus flowers, will quickly disappear.

Because I’ve had close involvement with the Beaconsfield Gold Mine rockfall that killed Larry Knight, and years earlier with the Esso Longford explosions and fires in Victoria, the CrossCity tunnel fatality in Sydney… and many other tragedies or near misses, such events, like a sudden cramp, re-focus my thinking on current issues. Another OHS failure that we didn’t stop.

Quad bike safety:

One such issue I’ve been involved in for some time has been the quad bike safety issue. The fatality statistics I have on these machines in Australia show that over the last 10 years 13 people (on average) are killed per year. 130 people, most of whom, the industry will have you believe, were ‘mis-users’ of the machines (see below). The trend is up not down.

I have just resigned from the TransTasman Quad Bike safety committee created by the regulators last year. The OHS and quad bike interest group in the community may be interested in some of the difficulties I see with the current work on this issue.

The obvious and useless in practice:

I think a much greater degree of transparency and openness – including a high level public conference – ought to take place. And neither the regulators nor industry will be interested in that; Continue reading “Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes”

Category: hazards

Preparing for occupational violence in fast food outlets

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Conkers and risk assessments

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The Social Media is the Message

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Make buying a business a safe choice

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West Australian farmer found dead under his quadbike

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Powerful OHS stories on YouTube

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Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes

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