media – Page 38 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

SafetyAtWorkBlog is one of the top 25 workplace blogs for 2010: LexisNexis

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

Kevin Jones FSIA

Media statements are everywhere as Safe Work Australia Week begins

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”

Hard copy OHS publications

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 website says OHS association is heartless

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

Powerful short OHS films and long-term safety promotion

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”

The Safety Institute discovers the media

For many years the Safety Institute of Australia has been uncertain in its media relations. On most of the important OHS issues in the last 10 years the SIA has either been silent for the fear of being “overtly political” or been too slow to react. Its past media releases have almost always been to promote upcoming conferences. Finally, the SIA has made a media statement within 24 hours of an OHS issue AND it was a political issue. Perhaps the SIA is finally showing some understanding of how to work with the media instead of being suspicious.

On 15 October 2010, The SIA issued a media release on the matter of NSW Premier Kristina Keneally’s refusal to play to the rules on harmonizing OHS laws. In a carefully worded statement, the SIA has come out on the side of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. No surprise there as Keneally’s government is considered by almost everyone as a certainty to lose power in the March 2011 election. But the SIA’s inherent conservatism is on show when it says the proposed federal law changes remove “any justification for a union’s right to prosecute.”. The SIA has always been uncomfortable with the OHS role of unions and has had a fractious relationship with the union movement. Continue reading “The Safety Institute discovers the media”

Radio National OHS program

On 21 September 2010, Radio Australia’s regular program Australia Talks conducted a live interview concerning occupational safety and health.

For those who have been listening to the show for some time would have been surprised that the program covered much of the same old OHS ground. Similar statistics, similar questions of what are the most dangerous occupations, similar assumptions and the same misunderstanding that discussions about OHS law are the same as discussions on safety management. Continue reading “Radio National OHS program”

Category: media

SafetyAtWorkBlog is one of the top 25 workplace blogs for 2010: LexisNexis

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Media statements are everywhere as Safe Work Australia Week begins

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Hard copy OHS publications

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Safety website says OHS association is heartless

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Powerful short OHS films and long-term safety promotion

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The Safety Institute discovers the media

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Radio National OHS program

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