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New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has released some statistics on quad bike incidents in support of its attendance at field days in mid-June 2010 and the release of three new agricultural safety publications. The media release quotes research from the Otago University.
“Three farmers or agricultural workers died and nearly 300 were injured in quad bike accidents on farms last year, according to ACC claims figures.
Recent research from Otago University forecast that in any given year farm workers will lose control of quad bikes on approximately 12,645 occasions, resulting in about 1400 injuries. Not all of these will be registered as workplace injury claims with ACC.”
The risk of jumping to conclusions from these statistics is that the ACC is not only concerned with workplace incidents and hence the conditional sentence at the end of the quote. Continue reading “New Zealand farm advocates talk briefly on quad bike safety”
The BBC’s radio program, Politics UK, for 18 June 2010 includes an uncredited discussion on the OHS review announced by Prime Minister Cameron recently. The discussion occurs at the 20 minute mark of the podcast which is available to download for a short time.
Much of the content seems to reflect the thoughts and comments of The Telegraph article by Philip Johnston but at least the BBC reporter acknowledges that the issue is not really health and safety but the “fear of litigation”.
There is an interesting reference to the “goldplating” of European Union directions and the issue of food safety and cheese is mentioned. The impression given is that the more significant and, perhaps, the more difficult challenge for Lord Young is not OHS but the “compensation culture”. If this is the case, OHS may come off the worse of the two as it may be given a secondary priority.
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”
Reviews of OHS legislation by governments are usually keenly anticipated as they mostly occur once a system is broken. But there seems to be considerable trepidation with the plan announced on 14 June 2010, by the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Cameron has appointed Lord Young to undertake an extensive review of OHS. According to the Prime minister’s media statement:
“The rise of the compensation culture over the last ten years is a real concern, as is the way health and safety rules are sometimes applied.
We need a sensible new approach that makes clear these laws are intended to protect people, not overwhelm businesses with red tape.”
Lord Young has a lot of work to do in building bridges after his disastrous appearance at the 2010 conference of the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) in April 2010. It’s not quite like putting Lord John Browne in charge of a petrol station but…. Continue reading “Lord Young = old approach to OHS”
Various sectors of the Australian media have been reporting on the potential use of asbestos-tainted sacks by Australian soldiers and Defence personnel. Asbestos exposure is a recurring risk for the Australian armed services due to items in use, such as the dummy, and the existence of asbestos in various buildings.
The issue of asbestos persisting in sacks was given prominence in the last 12 months by ABC journalist Matt Peacock in his book “Killer Company”. Peacock reported that inadequately cleaned sacks were reused as carpet underlay in Australia and for other purposes. Continue reading “Army notice on asbestos bags is warning for all workplaces”
Spying on people can be entertaining as can be shown by the popularity of hidden camera video on tabloid news shows but there is always a whiff of unfairness and distaste about the practice.
For the last couple of months, Washington State’s Department of Labour & Industries has been running a blog written by its Fraud Prevention and Compliance Manager, Carl Hammersburg. The blog matches the remit of the regulatory authority and covers a range of industrial enforcement actions. Occasionally it has included its own video surveillance of potential workers’ compensation fraudsters.
On 28 April 2010, the blog,called “Nailed“, included video of Frankie Day who, as a resulted on the L&I investigation, was found guilty of theft and then jailed. Continue reading “OHS regulator reveals a blog about OHS fraud and crime”