The Victorian Auditor-General is conducting an investigation into the “management of safety risks at level crossings”. Victoria’s Coroner is also investigating several, of the many, deaths at level crossings.
According to the Auditor-General’s website the level crossing report will be tabled in Parliament next month. It is understood that the three nominated level crossing hearings of the Victorian Coroner will commence sometime in 2010. Continue reading “Level crossing investigation reports”
On 28 January 2010, three men walked away from the helicopter that crashed in Northern New South Wales on the lip of a 1,000 metre cliff. The Australian media covered it fairly extensively. What is curious about this air crash is that there is no government investigation into the possible cause of the crash.
OHS professionals advocate the inclusion of “near misses” in any investigation program so such a lack of interest seems peculiar.
One media report said that both the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) will not be investigating. (The company that owned the helicopter is in Queensland). Continue reading “Near miss but no government action”
Businesses thrive on the concept of return on investment (ROI) but it has been very hard to apply this to training in workplace safety and SafetyatWorkBlog can only provide clues to this relationship.
Training is an important component in any company’s safety management program but it will not solve all OHS ills, regardless of the claims of some training providers. Specific training to achieve licences is one type of training where skills become directly practical but other training, such as First Aid, Health & Safety Representative (HSR) training or general OHS training, is more difficult to quantify. Continue reading “Does OHS training work?”
Only a day or two after writing about fines applied in Victoria over ignoring improvement notices from OHS inspectors, a similar case has been reported by SafeWork South Australia.
According to SafeWorkSA:
“Gillman-based Adelaide Ship Construction International Pty Ltd was fined $13,500 after pleading guilty to failing to comply with three Prohibition Notices issued by SafeWork SA.
The court heard how in September 2006, the shipbuilder’s managing director continued to operate a mobile crane and elevated work platform after removing the yellow “Do Not Use” tags placed on them by inspectors.
The Prohibition Notices were issued as a result of the lack of inspection records and logbooks for the machinery, and the managing director being unable to produce a certificate of competency to operate the crane.”
Continue reading “Operating cranes without a certificate costs $13,500”
On 26 January 2010, a fascinating document was released from England concerning workplace harassment and violence. This builds on earlier work in Europe and has led to the joint guidance on “Preventing Workplace Harassment and Violence“.
The guidance has the demonstrated support of employer, employee and government representatives who have committed to
“…ensuring that the risks of encountering harassment and violence whilst at work are assessed, prevented or controlled.”
Significantly they also state
“We will implement our agreement and review its operation.”
Continue reading “Dignity At Work, different UK and Australian approaches”
Australia’s Productivity Commission released its draft report into Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Occupational Health and Safety on 27 January 2010. The 432-page report will take some time to read and digest but below are the general key points of the report
- “This study compares inter-jurisdictional differences in occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation in 2008-09 and its administration and enforcement and the costs they imposed on business. Such benchmarking provides information which can support current moves to establish a consistent regulatory approach to OHS across all jurisdictions.
- Generally, OHS performance has been improving. National injury incidence rates have fallen almost 20 per cent between 2002-03 and 2007-08. Continue reading “Business assessment of OHS”
Regularly Australian OHS authorities announce campaigns in certain regions or for certain industries. To some extent these campaigns are about raising awareness of OHS issues but the fieldwork by inspectors does have some real benefit for some employers and workers.
Often these campaigns result in scores of improvement notices being issued. Safety improvements are a major part of this inspectorate activity so, to some extent, the more notices, the better. But notices aren’t advisories, they are directions that require action. Continue reading “Compliance campaigns not toothless”