One of the most important sources of information about occupational health and safety (OHS) is seminars organised by law firms. A great example was a webinar hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills on October 30, 2024, as part of its Safety Leadership Series. It was a general discussion on Australia’s most prominent OHS issues but outlined increasingly significant consequences.
The corporate cultures of Australia’s mining industry have been under substantial scrutiny for over a decade. Sexual harassment, bullying, work-related suicides and more psychosocial hazards have been identified with strategies introduced to address the cultures that contribute to these occupational harms.
On 20 November 2024, Rio Tinto released a progress survey on its cultural change initiatives, which the Australian Financial Review (AFR) described as showing a “backlash” to these reforms. This survey is a significant document for those on similar journeys and for occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates.
In the last week of October 2024, which is Australia’s National Safe Work Month, WorkSafe Victoria held two notable webinars: “Addressing and improving health and safety issues in the workplace” and ” Prevent and manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.” The themes were occupational health and safety (OHS), but the webinars differed greatly in content and presentation.
A new report on sexual harassment at work by Ourwatch has been reported on by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The report says:
“…. found 40 per cent of workplace leaders surveyed were unaware of their new legal obligations to prevent workplace sexual harassment.”
Given that the core legislative obligation to prevent sexual harassment is over 40 years old, perhaps better questions could have been asked.
A not-for-profit organisation, Grapevine, released a short annual report on workplace discrimination and harassment notifications. The report received some attention in Australian media as these workplace hazards continue to be topical. The issues blend into the occupational health and safety (OHS) discipline, but the discussions were marked for omitting the OHS and regulatory context.
Psychological injuries that happen at work or are caused by work may need to be notified to occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators in some Australian jurisdictions. Recently, an organisation associated with prominent Australian businessman Andrew Forrest underwent the notification experience and received an improvement notice.
I am not immune to the worries and potential of using Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in my occupational health and safety (OHS) work and writings. As with millions of others, my relationship is a work in progress.
I have long used the transcription software Otter.ai to transcribe short interviews. It remains less accurate than human transcription, but it remains useful. One of its new AI tools is that it can analyse all of the conversations recorded through Otter.ai or uploaded to it for transcribing. I have years of recordings at OHS conferences, seminars, webinars, and interviews, so I asked this question:
“Why does the Human Resources profession struggle with preventing psychological and psychosocial harm?”
This was its response:
