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One billboard outside Melbourne, Victoria

The Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) is likely to have a different brand name in a couple of months.  Following a member survey some weeks ago SIA Board members have been travelling Australia consulting with members.  This may seem a bit arse about face but a process without consultation would have been a major problem.

Last night was Melbourne’s turn with a forum of about a dozen people hosted by Naomi Kemp.  The survey results are inconclusive so should the rebranding exercise proceed?

Kemp provided some context

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SafeWorkSA described as dysfunctional and immature

South Australia’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) conducted its last public hearing into SafeWork SA on August 31 2018.  The Counsel Assisting, Holly Stanley, made several recommendations for improving SafeWork SA’s performance and governance, including body cameras for inspectors.  Rather than wrapping up the inquiry with this public hearing, Commission  Bruce Lander has asked for further submissions about these latest recommendations.

Stanley clearly stated  the conditions from which she was making her recommendation such as resource restrictions, previous

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An iron fist in a velvet glove to HR over psych claims

Dr Rebecca Michalak has just published an extraordinary article calling on the Human Resources profession and many others to take a good, hard look at how they treat workers who may have been subjected to psychological pressures at work.

Human Resources personnel could feel particularly hard done by but Michalak stresses that there are many players in the process of creating and managing psychologically healthy workplace and of not adequately managing psychologically injured workers.  She makes her proposition clear up front:

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Safety Culture debates could be psychologically unsafe

 

Tristan Casey and Andrew Hopkins speaking at SafetyConnect conference

Professor Andrew Hopkins is one of Australia’s most prominent critics of how the term “Safety Culture” is used by the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession and businesses generally.  Last week, Dr Tristan Casey followed Hopkins’ presentation at a Brisbane safety conference and was put on the spot as his presentation was not really compatible.  This happens at conferences and diversity of thought should be applauded but it is difficult for the second speaker and can be confusing for the audience.

Hopkins addressed seven propositions, each of which, challenge the management of OHS

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Safety Leadership is a thing and not a person

For many years now workplace health and safety conferences have discussed Leadership and how it is vital to the establishment of appropriate safety performance and, often, the establishment of a safety culture.  NSCA Foundation’s SafetyCONNECT conference was no different in some ways but there was a major concession in the last couple of the minutes of the conference.

Many presenters implied, or stated, that Leadership is a critical element of successful safety management.  They also said that safety starts from the top.  It is not unreasonable to interpret these statements as meaning that Leadership is embodied in the Chief Executive Officer, Senior Executive or Director and that safety trickles down through the management structures like neoliberal nonsense.

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Deaths inquiry asks the hard questions

This week in Australia, the Senate Education and Employment References Committee inquiry into industrial deaths conducts public hearings in three States in three days.  Transcripts will be available shortly but it is worth looking at the record of the last public hearing from August 7 2018 to see the type of questions the panel are asking and how some of Australia’s business and occupational health and safety organisations are responding.

Mark Goodsell of the Australian Industry Group (AiGroup) seemed to struggle at times but this may have been partly due to his choice not to repeat the content of the AiGroup submission and instead comment on some of the other submissions.  Goodsell points out:

“We made the point in our submission, and a number of the other submissions also made the point, that industrial deaths have decreased in absolute terms in Australia over the last decade or so. As a proportion of the workforce, that’s a broad pattern across all states and most industries—in fact, all industries but not all to the same degree. That’s not widely acknowledged in a lot of the submissions. It is in the employers’ submissions but most of the other submissions appear to either not acknowledge that or just jump over that.” (pages 36 & 37)

This Senate Committee is looking at industrial deaths so the focus on fatalities is understandable. 

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If you don’t prevent, you perpetuate

Systematic approach to psychological health and safety

One of the most important occupational health and safety (OHS) guidances released the last couple of years is the Safe Work Australia (SWA) guide “Work-related psychological health and safety: A systematic approach to meeting your duties“, but its significance is not being universally embraced.

Recently Australian law firm, Minter Ellison, released an

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