risk – Page 96 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Talking about OHS could remove the need for Industrial Manslaughter laws

Gaby Grammeno has been writing about workplace health and safety (WHS) issues for longer than I have. Her work for Workplace OHS, a subscription OHS news service, includes an “ask an expert” service and her latest is a comparison between the OHS/WHS laws involving “reckless endangerment” and “industrial manslaughter”.

The article is of interest to OHS people and reinforces some of the legal opinions on the proposed introduction of industrial manslaughter laws in Victoria. There is disparity in sentencing and financial penalties in Queensland laws compared to potential Victorian ones and one includes “serious injuries” where the other addresses deaths. But the issue of penalty sizes is a sideshow to the intended purpose of these types of laws – deterrence.

Will a penalty of A$3.8 million have a greater deterrent effect than A$3.1 million?

Dreamworld – this week and beyond

Managerial representatives of Dreamworld appeared at the second week of the inquest into the deaths of four patrons at the Australian theme park in 2016. The week ended with Dreamworld’s parent company Ardent Leisure advising the Australian Securities Exchange of the departure of the current Chief Executive Officer, Craig Davidson. So what does this all mean?

Safety Management

Early last week, Dreamworld’s former safety manager, Mark

Three books that challenge OHS

Book publisher Routledge has recently released books about occupational health and safety (OHS) that are very critical of OHS’ role, or that of the health and safety professional, in modern business. Below I dip into the

The Fearless World of Professional Safety in the 21st Century
The 10 Step MBA for Safety and Health Practitioners, and
Naked Safety – Exploring The Dynamics of Safety in a Fast-Changing World.

Continue reading “Three books that challenge OHS”

Labour Hire safety challenges

Victoria has passed legislation to licence the labour hire industry. Occupational health and safety (OHS) gets a mention, in some ways.

The objects of this Act seem fairly straightforward:

” to protect workers from being exploited by providers of labour hire services and hosts; and

to improve the transparency”

The explanatory memorandum sounds promising. Clause 23 says:

“Subclause (1) states that if an application for a licence or renewal of a licence is made by an applicant who, at the time of making the application, is conducting a business that provides labour hire
services, the applicant must include with the application a declaration that, to the applicant’s knowledge, the applicant complies with the various laws that are set out so far as they relate to the business to which the licence relates. Examples of
such laws include workplace, taxation and occupational health and safety laws.”

The good news is that OHS is stated as an example of the type of information required in a licence application.

Don’t “say anything to anyone..” – Dreamworld inquest

The first week of the two-week inquest into four fatalities at the Dreamworld theme park in Queensland has concluded. It has substantial occupational health and safety (OHS) management lessons for Australian businesses in a similar way to that of many recent workplace disasters. Those lessons are basic and the hazards are well-known in the OHS profession. Journalists Jamie Walker and Mark Schliebs, in the Weekend Australian newspaper, provided an excellent review (paywalled) of the lessons from that first week.

SafetyAtWorkBlog has not written about the deaths on the, now discontinued, Thunder Rapids ride because there has been an

Old school OHS – eliminating workplace risks at the source

Safe Work Australia’s work-related psychological health and safety guidance focusses on the elimination risks and hazards, as required under Australia’s workplace health and safety laws. But a slight technical change in the legislation when it moved from occupational health and safety (OHS) to work health and safety (WHS) impedes its successful acceptance.

Australia’s Work Health and Safety laws dropped a reference in the Act’s Objects that would have provided considerable support to work-related mental health and this guidance.

A strong attack on work-related psychological health and safety

The guidance on workplace psychological health and safety forecast by Safe Work Australia’s Peta Miller was released on June 14 2018. There is potential for this guidance to change how mental health is managed and, most importantly, prevented in Australian workplaces.

It is important to note that “Work-related psychological health and safety – a systematic approach to meeting your duties” has been developed with the involvement and approval of all of Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) or work health and safety (WHS) regulatory bodies. Workplace mental health promoters and resilience peddlers are unlikely to find much support in this document as the prevention of harm is the benchmark.

The guidance is also intended to operate in support

Category: risk

Talking about OHS could remove the need for Industrial Manslaughter laws

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Dreamworld – this week and beyond

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Three books that challenge OHS

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Labour Hire safety challenges

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Don’t “say anything to anyone..” – Dreamworld inquest

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Old school OHS – eliminating workplace risks at the source

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A strong attack on work-related psychological health and safety

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