law – Page 182 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Death in the workplace guide could have been much more helpful

Workplace Health & Safety Queensland (WHSQ)has released an update of its guidance on how to handle the impacts of a death at work. “A death in the workplace– a guide for families and friends” provides very useful information for a period when a family’s life will change forever and when thinking clearly will be difficult.

Like many guidances from OHS regulators, this one is very legalistic or procedural. It explains the roles of police, coroners, OHS inspectors and others but it lacks a humanity that many would find reassuring in such a difficult time.

One of the issues that creates great anxiety is any delay in getting the body of their loved one back. The Queensland guide discusses organising this through a funeral director but grieving people want a little more information. The guide would have been improved by simply stating that there may be a delay in returning their loved ones and that a delay of a week is often the norm.

Often families choose not to know the details of the procedures because they are focussing on their loss. Anyone who has had to organise a funeral after a sudden non-work related death knows how traumatic the process already is and how disruptive it can be to a family, without the involvement of government agencies, police and others.

If the readership of this guidance was families and friends it has the wrong tone. It provides important information without understanding the context in which such a guide may be read. WorkCover New South Wales’ guide for families recognises this context with “a word of introduction”. Continue reading “Death in the workplace guide could have been much more helpful”

Good Comcare content on effects of OHS harmonisation

Australia’s Comcare was the first of the OHS regulators to provide an information session on Australia’s attempts to harmonise its OHS laws across many different jurisdictions and industry sectors. The Melbourne seminar on 7 February 2011 could have been presented better but some useful information was available.

Content – Inspectorate

The most significant OHS information to come out of the event was that Comcare is making a serious attempt to move its enforcement from the investigatory model to inspectorate. Michael Barnes acknowledged that this will be a considerable culture change for Comcare staff and, by extension, many Comcare clients. This is a major change of emphasis as illustrated by Victoria’s WorkSafe that went through this exercise over the last five years or so. This program will take many years to introduce and still more years to be accepted.

Basically the OHS “policeman” will have additional obligations to advise clients on ways to comply with OHS laws. There has always been a tension when OHS inspectors, who often know the most appropriate control measure in work situations, are bound to not advise as they would be overstepping their authority. Continue reading “Good Comcare content on effects of OHS harmonisation”

Local safety article reflects bigger issues

Workplace safety hardly ever gets a mention in the daily newspapers unless there is a big corporate name involved or a record fine. Local newspapers often provide more coverage of workplace incidents because the local angle allows for the reporting of the social and familial impact of an incident within days of it occurring.

The 9 February 2011 edition of the Melbourne Times Weekly included a feature article – “Risky Business” by Genevieve Gannon. The existence of any media mention of workplace safety is of note in itself but Gannon’s article, with assistance from the always-helpful WorkSafe spokesperson, Michael Birt, does not only focus on the fatalities (23 in 2010) but also on the maimings. Around 70 people had life-threatening injuries in Victoria in 2010 and 20,000 were seriously injured. Continue reading “Local safety article reflects bigger issues”

Is night shift reasonable practicable?

Tony Carter, has provided some additional information about occupational fatigue after reading the fatigue article on this blog earlier today.

Carter was one of three authors of a 2007 article in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene entitled “Epidemiological Diagnosis of Occupational Fatigue in a Fly-In–Fly-Out Operation of the Mineral Industry” (abstract only available online). The abstract says that:

“A disturbed diurnal rhythm at the beginning of night shift and a roster of more than eight consecutive days were identified as the primary contributing factors to occupational fatigue in this setting.”

It is fair to say night shift and eight consecutive days of work are the causes in this research but research without proposed controls is of little practical use. Thankfully the study by Anthony Carter, Reinhold Muller and Ann Williamson provides some control suggestions – naps and changes to lighting. Simple in concept but possibly difficult to implement. How does a company provide naps in a production line operation? Can production continue as lighting lux levels are reduced? Continue reading “Is night shift reasonable practicable?”

Only animals should die in abattoirs

The Sunday Age of 30 January 2011 ran an article about the status of workplace safety in some of Victoria’s abattoirs. The article has some similarities to the landmark investigations by Eric Schlosser into work practices and compensation issues related to meatworks in the United States.

The Sunday Age says that

“(Last financial year [2009/2010], there were 355 workers’ compensation claims in Victoria’s meat industry that required at least 10 days off work, or cost more than $580 in treatment, or both – almost one a day. Nationally the industry’s injury and illness rate remains twice as high as that in the construction industry, and four times the average of all workplaces.”

Many would say that meat work is “inherently dangerous” but in the article lawyer Trevor Monti, contests the perception

”Yes, it’s a difficult industry and the work can be hard,” he says. ”But with proper consideration given to the system of work, the risk of injury can be significantly reduced.”

This is a position with which OHS professionals and regulators would agree.

It is significant that, if the comparative figures quoted above by the Sunday Age are accurate, abattoirs do not receive the enforcement attention that the construction industry receives. Is it that the construction industry is largely unionised and the meat industry much less so? Is it that abattoirs are rorting the immigration visa system as asserted by the Australian Meat Industry? Continue reading “Only animals should die in abattoirs”

Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties

A Western Australian company has been fined $A50,000 over the death of one of its workers in November 2008 The worker rode a quad bike into a wire gate and died. The recent WorkSafe WA media release focuses, understandably on the fine imposed in the Perth Magistrates’ Court on Jenara P/L but a clearer picture of the incident is available from an earlier WorkSafe report into the incident. The accused, in this instance, was Seatown Holdings, a labour hire firm who was fined $A30,000 :

“The accused was a labour hire company which employed a worker for remuneration and arranged for said worker to work for Jenara Pty Ltd who was one of its clients.

The client ran a grain growing farm near Miling.

During the afternoon on Sunday 16 November 2008 the worker was working alone and riding an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) on a road on the client’s farm when he rode into a wire gate known as a ‘cockies gate’. Continue reading “Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties”

Safety rationalisation doesn’t end with an improving economy!

Guest contributor, Gerard May, writes

The economic circumstances an organisation finds itself in can greatly affect their approach to workplace health and safety. Tough economic times are still ahead for some industries and organisations, while others who rationalised for survival through the global financial crisis will begin to prosper. This article will delve into what may be happening to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) in organisations heading into both tough and improving economic times. The economy will play a role.

Rationalisation in the manufacturing industry appears likely as the Australian Industry Group’s Performance of Manufacturing Index showed nine out of the 12 sub-sectors in the industry went backwards in December 2010[1]. Pricewaterhousecooper‘s (PwC) Australian-based global head of industrial manufacturing, Graeme Billings, recently stated,

“In the face of…declines in activity and the continuing slump in new orders, it is imperative that businesses continue to search for efficiencies, improvements and innovative approaches to their markets, products and business models[2].”

OH&S will surely be in the sights of rationalisation in the sector.

Category: law

Death in the workplace guide could have been much more helpful

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Good Comcare content on effects of OHS harmonisation

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Local safety article reflects bigger issues

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Is night shift reasonable practicable?

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Only animals should die in abattoirs

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Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties

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Safety rationalisation doesn’t end with an improving economy!

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