The New South Wales (Labor) government has amended its work health and safety and industrial relations laws. These changes have been described as “substantial” in one legal opinion, but the changes reflect the management of company liability more than preventing harm.
Militant construction unions in Australia have damaged the relationship between the community and the trade union movement. Although the typical trade union member may be a nurse, a teacher, or a public servant, most would depict a member as a big, aggressive, rude, and domineering man. Australia’s trade union movement is trying to redress this perception, but it cannot progress until it eliminates the unsafe behaviour of the organisers of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). The Queensland government is set to give reform a red-hot go.
Recently, Federation Press published a weighty tome written by Arie Freiberg called “Regulation in Australia. 2nd Edition“. For those of you who are legislative junkies and can quote sections of occupational health and safety (OHS) law, you will love this, as it examines the mechanics of regulation, not just those of Industrial Relations or OHS. And there is some powerful context to market failures that often lead to new regulations, a perspective shared with Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway in their 2024 book, “The Big Myth“.
Sometimes you need to stop what you’re doing and reflect. This could relate to life, work, values or more. I was invited to talk to the Central Safety Group (CSG) this week on “Challenging Mainstream OHS Views”, so I stopped, thought, and jotted down some personal opinions to discuss. It was a helpful exercise.
Recently, sentencing in a court case in Melbourne has generated much online chatter about excessive working hours and the exploitation of workers in a small law practice. One report of the $A50,000 fine against Erudite Legal says that the company:
“…forced a junior lawyer to work up to 24-hour days and watch an ice hockey movie at 1am so she could understand her boss’ philosophical position”.
Other media reports provide more details of the successful prosecution, but the occupational health and safety (OHS) context is mostly absent.
This weekend, all the talk in Australia has been about the massive and unexpected electoral swing to the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the federal election. Most pundits were expecting a majority government, at least, but now the ALP has a substantial majority in the House of Representatives. Possible constraints from a new Senate have yet to be identified.
But this blog is about occupational health and safety (OHS), so why start with an election summary? Industrial relations and, therefore, OHS were almost entirely absent from the election campaigns.
WorkSafe Vcitoria’s annual awards night for 2024 was held last week. It was an unexceptional night, with around 400 in the audience, most of whom were award finalists and their colleagues. Although unexceptional, it was not dull, as the finalists’ stories were often compelling. However, the event needs a boost. Perhaps not to the flamboyance of earlier this century with over 1000 attendees and dancing into the night, as that would not be a good political look, but it needs something.
What was not notable was the politics of the evening.
