Two interesting and useful OHS publications have been released in Australia. The West Australian Division of the Safety Institute of Australia has published its Australian Safety Matters magazine. It is freely downloadable and available HERE.
The second is a publication from Workplace Standards Tasmania and relates particularly to OHS issues related to the electrical, gas, plumbing and building industries. It’s published twice a year and is available for free download HERE.
In October 2009, Australian lawyer, Michael Tooma gained considerable media coverage by stating that under the model Work Health and Safety Act:
“..if I call out a tradesperson to do some work at my home, my home is their workplace and I would be a person at their workplace. As such, I would have a duty to take reasonable care for my own safety and the safety of others and to cooperate with their reasonable instructions in my own home. If I breach that duty I could be liable for a criminal offence.”
At that time SafetyAtWorkBlog was skeptical as it was hard to believe that this likelihood, or regulatory loophole, would be allowed to continue. It seems that a decision in the New South Wales District Court on 4 March 2010 has provided Tooma with a case that supports his decision. Continue reading “Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions”
Trench collapses can be one of the most horrifying incidents on a construction site. The UK’s Health & Safety Executive has released photos of the trench in which a worker, Mark Miller according to one media report
“…suffered a broken leg and bruising, and was incredibly fortunate to survive the horror of being buried alive.”
The same media report from Cambridge News says
“The court heard Mr Miller was saved by Hill [the contractor and Miller’s employer],…. after he rushed to free the trapped worker.
Robin Cooper, prosecuting, said: “He was buried up to his abdomen and felt his left leg break. More earth then collapsed on him and buried him to above his head.”
Continue reading “Man survives trench collapse, employer fined £3,500”
Bernard Keane writing in online newsletter, Crikey, is one of the few who has reported on the Australian Government’s insulation scheme debacle and kept the fact of worker deaths as more than just a moral sideline to the issue.
On 3 March 2010, Keane wrote a very good article which draws on the political and media attitudes to worker deaths over the last decade in Australia. He highlights the political expediency of selective reporting and commentary on safety issues. Many of the comments and assertions made at the Cole Royal Commission are still reiterated today and form the basis of some political party policies.
Given the recent media coverage on workplace bullying, Keane’s reminder on the deaths and suicides in the Australian Defence Forces and the political reticence to do anything on the matter, is timely.
It is only six weeks before the International Workers’ Memorial day, (28 April 2010). The 2010 commemoration is likely to be one of the most political events since it began almost two decades ago.
Some of the statistics that fueled the outrage against then-Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, are seriously questioned in this blog article at Pollytics.com.
GE Capital placed a full-page pictorial advertisement in The Age newspaper on 4 March 2010 (page 5 of the business section). The ad, partly reproduced below, promotes the company’s financial services with the corporate slogan of “imagination at work”. Sadly safety at work wasn’t included in the ad.
SafetyAtWorkBlog readers are asked to list the workplace hazards in this picture. Continue reading ““Imagination at work” but not safety”
The issue of quad-bike safety continues to be controversial in Australia. This debate is not helped by inconsistent safety messages on television. Many of the news bulletins in Australia on 2 March 2010 showed the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, riding, seemingly for the first time, a quad bike on his trip to central Australia. Sometimes he is wearing a helmet and at other times, not.
Video available on the ABC website shows parts of an apparent induction on how to operate the quad bike. Continue reading “Aussie politician risks head injury in photo op”
In January 2010, Today Tonight in South Australia aired a disturbing report about the workers compensation reforms in that State. It talks to two widows who blame WorkCover SA as contributing to their husbands’ suicides. One man left a suicide note explicitly blaming WorkCover SA, emphasising his point by jumping to his death from the sixth floor of the WorkCover office building.
The video report is available HERE under the title WorkCover Suicide.
One of those interviewed in the story is Kevin Purse who undertook a report into the SA workers’ compensation system on behalf of SA Unions. Continue reading “Some families in South Australia blame WorkCover for their partners’ suicides”