On 8 February 2010, four workers at Café Vamp, a small restaurant in Melbourne Victoria, were fined a total of $A335,000 for repeatedly bullying, or allowing bullying to occur to, 19-year-old Brodie Panlock. Brodie jumped from a building in September 2006. Her family watched Brodie die from head injuries three days later. They were unaware that Brodie was being bullied at work.
Slips, trips and falls are often the neglected “bastard son” of occupational health and safety but the can cripple and can, literally cost an arm or a leg.
The traditional approach to control these hazards have been to make the working environment safer by mopping up spilled liquids, for instance, or be using a piece of equipment such as a stepladder, or in the long-term or in the beginning of a project, to design out hazards.
We also know that musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) make occur suddenly, and dramatically and painfully, but one’s body has accumulated weaknesses over time. The UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has released a research report that indicates a new approach to MSDs or at least a start. Continue reading “Biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders”
Over the last couple of months, SafetyAtWorkBlog has written several articles on the psychosocial workplace hazard of depression, stress and anxiety.
Science Friday is a regular feature of the NPR program, Talk of the Nation in the United States. Last Friday, it focussed on depression. Its speakers talked about how the diagnosis of depression has changed over the decades, sometimes to match the range of depression medications available.
Importantly there is a differentiation between depression and mental health. (Psychosocial disorders doesn’t seem to be a term used outside of OHS) Depression is slowly becoming the collective term for sad, melancholy, unhappy, miserable, anxious………. It is very important for workplace safety professionals to try to pierce the fug of depression marketing so that one is not distracted into the trap of treating workers for a personal problem rather than preventing the hazard through changing organisational attitudes. Continue reading “Don’t get sidetracked by depression marketing”
If the prevention of depression is better than trying to treat it, how should a safety manager proceed when permissible work practices may be contributing to mental health problems in some workers?
A new UK study announced today says “that excessive internet use is associated with depression”. The researchers say that
“…some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.” Continue reading “Internet addiction in the workplace”
Recently, SafetyAtWorkBlog received a long anonymous email concerning the death of David Colson, Tasmanian abalone diver who drowned in October 2007. The Coroner completed his inquest into the death and released his investigation findings in early January 2010. An earlier blog article on the findings can be found here
The correspondent pointed out that Allen Hansen, founder and managing director of Tasmanian Seafoods, the company that was to receive the abalone harvested by David Colson and Tony Burton, and a director the Tasmanian Abalone Council for an Export Award. The award was in fact an Export Leadership Award.
There is no indication that workplace safety is a criteria in the awarding of the Export Leadership Awards. The Award website describes Hansen as
“…truly an industry ‘builder’ and has made an outstanding contribution to developing the premier image of Tasmanian abalone.”
Attitudes to OHS in the abalone industry
The Coroner found that Allen Hansen’s company, Tasmanian Seafoods, did not have any procedures in place for when a boat did not return on time. Continue reading “Something fishy in Tasmania’s abalone industry”
Insurance policies for directors and officers (D&O) liabilities have yet to gain much application in terms of occupational health and safety penalties. But D&O insurance policies are in Australia and are established in other countries.
According to Wikipedia:
“Directors and Officers Liability Insurance (often called D&O) is liability insurance payable to the directors and officers of a company, or to the organization(s) itself, to cover damages or defense costs in the event they suffer such losses as a result of a lawsuit for alleged wrongful acts while acting in their capacity as directors and officers for the organization.”
A decision by the High Court in England throws further light on the application of D&O. Continue reading “D/O liability insurance gets to England’s High Court”
SafeWorkSA has issued media releases on 20 January 2010 concerning two recent decisions from the Industrial Relations Court. The first of these will a situation of bypassing a machine guard that is all too familiar to OHS professionals –
“a pair of vice grips had been attached to the finger guard at the front of the press, restricting its full range of movement and allowing access to the main moving parts during operation”.
The plant was a Hallbank 40 Tonne Front Press and the operator, Karen Carter, was unfamiliar with the machine. Prior to this hearing there was a dispute of facts hearing concerning who set up the press prior to the incident. Continue reading “Finger amputation and arc flash burns”