Most of the workplace bullying attention in Australia in recent years has focussed on the white-collar industries and the relationship to stress, workload, harassment and policies for respect. A case reported in the The Age newspaper on 29 April 2010 about bullying in a door frame company is reflective of apprentice bullying cases of over a decade ago but also illustrates the potential complexity of this workplace hazard. Continue reading “Inter-related issues of workplace bullying”
Category: psychiatric
Professor Niki Ellis hits out at the state of OHS in Australia
“…OHS is not fit for the 21st century. It is isolated, has a limited academic base and remit, uneven provision, lack of good quality data, a poor image and is perceived by many as the servant of the employer.”
Professor Niki Ellis speaks frankly about the OHS discipline in Australia.
Professor Niki Ellis recently was appointed the CEO of the Institute of Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR) after some time in the United Kingdom and a short period as the acting chair of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission. Prof Ellis provided a refreshing and confronting presentation to the 2009 Comcare Conference (pictured right) that SafetyAtWorkBlog attended. Continue reading “Professor Niki Ellis hits out at the state of OHS in Australia”
Compensation denied because police officers only saw the aftermath of fatal incident
In 2003, emergency responders attended a major rail incident at Waterfall in New South Wales, in which multiple passengers were injured and seven died. According to a 14 April 2010 article in The Australian (page 7, not yet(?) available online):
“The officers [David Wicks and Philip Sheehan] were among the first at the scene of the crash that killed seven people, including the driver, who lost control of the train after he had a heart attack”.
Those officers have been denied compensation under the NSW Civil Liability Act because
“they did not witness the crash, only its aftermath.”
Both police officers had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and been medically discharged.
Their claim for compensation has now reached the High Court of Australia Continue reading “Compensation denied because police officers only saw the aftermath of fatal incident”
Important lessons from France Telecom suicide investigations
On 9 April 2010, according to media reports, an investigating magistrate was appointed to investigate the more than 30 suicides that have occurred in the France Telecom (FT) workforce.
This follows the November 2009 court finding that management policy could generate harassment.
An inspectors report in February 2010 identified that “pathogenic” management methods were applied to achieve a job reduction target of 22,000 between 2006 and 2008.
Significantly one media report says that suicides are continuing in the workforce with ten occurring since the start of 2010.
An Associated Press report on 12 April 2010 quotes a union lawyer:
“At one time, there was an intention to create a sense of frustration so employees would leave. The problem was that it worked too well…” Continue reading “Important lessons from France Telecom suicide investigations”
Restorative Justice research gets funding boost as US hearings focus on workplace bullying and suicide
The role of restorative justice in workplace incidents has received a major boost from the Legal Services Board in Victoria. According to an April 2010 newsletter from the Creative Ministries Network additional research funding has been received for a quality assurance framework. As mentioned in the article below restorative justice could have particular benefits to instances of workplace bullying.
Several of the suggestions and areas of research echo some of the issues raised in US Assembly Labor Committee hearings on workplace bullying and suicides in the last few days.
“The Creative Ministries Network has received a further grant from the Legal Services Board to undertake a project to develop a Victorian quality assurance framework for any restorative justice service operating in the area of work-related death. The project will also examine whether this framework may apply to work-related injury, especially in areas such as workplace bullying. Continue reading “Restorative Justice research gets funding boost as US hearings focus on workplace bullying and suicide”
Cash motivates, toasters create dissent
Motivating workers and managers to improve safety performance through rewards has been a contentious element of safety management processes for decades but no-one seems to have got it right. Most bonus/award/reward systems are able to be manipulated. An article in the Harvard Business Review and Australian Financial Review may add another dimension to the discussion by looking at the psychological effects of cash.
Kathleen Vohs undertook research that indicated
“The effect of handling money was quite pronounced—in the four scenarios we tested, the people who handled money reported significantly less pain or social exclusion.” Continue reading “Cash motivates, toasters create dissent”
Employees’ OHS responsibility and working beyond the maximum hours
One of the most powerful motivators for behavioural change in workplaces is the legislative obligation on employees to not put themselves at risk of injury nor to act in such a way as to place others at risk.
Reported in the Australian media on 31 March 2010, Fair Work Australia has ruled that employees in the fruit-picking industry may volunteer for work beyond the standard 38-hour week without receiving penalty rates or overtime. The union movement is understandably concerned about how this financially disadvantages workers and how this ruling may spread beyond the fruit-picking industry.
The ruling allows fruit-pickers to choose to work beyond their regular shifts. Will they be able to work safely? Will they not be fatigued? Will they have sufficient daylight to undertake the tasks safely? Will there be sufficient downtime for workers to recover from a long work day and be fit for work? Could the workers’ choice to undertake additional fruit-picking tasks be a breach of their OHS obligations to look after their own safety, health and welfare?
The employees may choose to ignore their own occupational health for the sake of additional dollars but should they then be eligible for workers’ compensation if the effects of those longer hours are found to have contributed to an injury or illness? Continue reading “Employees’ OHS responsibility and working beyond the maximum hours”