The Queensland Division of the Safety Institute of Australia regularly produces a newsletter/magazine of consistent quality and the November 2010 edition is available online.
This edition includes an article by Warwick Pearse on the Montara oil spill. Pearse did not have the luxury of access to the final reports or government’s response but he makes sound recommendations.
Australia’s OHS awards season has concluded with many of the same challenges it had in 2009.
Most States have harmonised their awards categories so that the national OHS awards in March 2011 are fairer but the worth of some categories, listed below, remains in question.
“Category 1: Best Workplace Health and Safety Management System
a. Private Sector
b. Public Sector
Category 2: Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue
Category 3: Best Workplace Health and Safety practice/s in Small Business
Category 4: Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health and Safety
An employee, such as a health and safety representative
An outstanding contribution by an OHS manager or a person with responsibility for work health and safety as part of their duties”
The category of most concern is “Best OHS Management System”. For several years many OHS and media people have asked “why should a company receive an award for what they should already be doing?” Continue reading “Australian OHS Awards need a review to stay relevant”
I am proud to inform you that the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Community has chosen SafetyAtWorkBlog as on of it “2010 honorees for the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issue“.
LexisNexis stated that:
“A winner last year as well, SafetyAtWorkBlog by Australian Kevin Jones is an excellent foreign OSHA and workers’ compensation product that features news and analysis of workplace issues on the other side of the globe. This straight forward Blog provides insight and informative content into international worker safety developments, marrying the law, business processes, medicine, and social concerns into thought provoking commentaries.”
In the blogosphere and in OHS there are few opportunities for kudos for writing about workplace safety issues. Many OHS organisations only communicate with members yet the profession is far larger than any one organisation. I write the SafetyAtWorkBlog because safety needs interpretation, sometimes even translation, and, perhaps even more importantly, that voice needs to be independent. The award from LexisNexis gives me hope that I am on the right track.
Please check out the other honorees at the LexisNexis site as several are new and are great sources of information
Today was a big day for organisations and government authorities to restate their commitments to workplace safety.
Queensland’s Industrial Relations Cameron Dick has stated that “workers and their families were paying too high a price for their jobs.
“Every year more than 100 Queenslanders die and tens of thousands more suffer a work-related injury or illness, costing the Queensland economy about $5 billion a year. That is just not good enough and we can all do more to reduce that toll. Safety needs to become an integral part of the everyday culture of all Queensland workplaces and we must realise that safety is everyone’s responsibility.”
South Australia’s IR Minister, Paul Holloway has said
“The imperative to proactively manage safety is one we can never stop reinforcing, given the ever-changing nature of the workforce and the need to protect new entrants to the working environment.”
Very surprisingly he also said that
“We’re on track to beat the nationally-agreed target of a 40% reduction in workplace injury in the ten years to 2012, Continue reading “Media statements are everywhere as Safe Work Australia Week begins”
Printing is expensive and the internet has provided an attractive alternative and low-cost distribution network that particularly suits OHS information. The precursor to the SafetyAtWorkBlog, the Safety AT WORK magazine, was distributed as a PDF magazine only and online for years. Publishing online allows for all the printing costs to be outsourced to the subscribers or readers, or at least those who choose to print guidances, alerts, etc.
But it is reasonable to expect that during a national Workplace Safety Week, hard copies of government OHS guidances should be made available to those people who register or attend government-sponsored events, particularly if that event is a (“soft”) launch of a new guidance.
Today I attended a WorkSafe Victoria seminar where a panel of safety experts discussed government OHS requirements as they relate to procurement. The seminar was also a launch of the new WorkSafe guide Health and safety in construction procurement – A handbook for the public sector No hard copies were available in the seminar for participants. This raised the odd situation where it was possible to attend a seminar on a new guidance, listen to a WorkSafe representative talk about the guidance, listen to three panelists praise the guide but not have a copy of the guide. Continue reading “Hard copy OHS publications”
Safety In Australia has posted an extraordinary article questioning the decision of the Safety Institute of Australia to proceed with a process to consider the expulsion of one of its members regardless of the member recently suffering a heart attack.
The article says that the SIA has received a doctor’s letter saying that Phil Kamay, the member in question, should not attend the special general meeting on health grounds but the SIA has decided to proceed regardless. Safety In Australia questions this decision on the grounds of fairness. It is unclear who, if anyone, will be presenting Kamay’s rebuttal of the accusations against him that have led to the expulsion moves.
On an unrelated note, it is understood that the SIA has two tables booked for Worksafe Victoria’s Safety Awards late next week and that Phil Kamay is a guest at one of those tables.
Kevin Jones
The Australian OHS regulators struggle each year to make their annual safety week events last beyond the nominated week, the events and the newspaper advertisements. Queensland’s Workplace Health & Safety (WHSQ) has released two short films focussing on workplace incidents.
The McGuane film provides a chronology of Gavan McGuane going to work for 30 minutes and remaining in hospital with serious facial and eyesight problems for over 50 days.
There are telling comments from the McGuane family and his doctor about the personal cost of this workplace injury. Continue reading “Powerful short OHS films and long-term safety promotion”