safety culture – Page 32 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Industrial manslaughter debate reveals commitment and misunderstandings

Industrial manslaughter laws passed through the Queensland Parliament on October 12 2017. The debate about the laws on that day is an interesting read as it illustrates some of the thoughts about workplace safety in the minds of policy decision makers, business owners, industry associations, trade unions and safety advocates.

Lawyer for Herbert Smith Freehills, Steve Bell, has said in a LinkedIn post that:

“Will [industrial manslaughter laws] make workplaces safer? In my view probably not, but it will certainly affect the manner in which businesses respond to workplace incidents and external investigations.”

This perspective is understandable and valid when one considers the laws to be a part of the post-incident investigation and prosecution. A similar view was expressed in Queensland’s Parliament by the Liberal National Party’s David Janetzki, based on the submission by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland: Continue reading “Industrial manslaughter debate reveals commitment and misunderstandings”

Australia the first stop on international roadshow over safety management Standard

The latest safety management standard ISO45001 will be active in a few months’ time. It is the first international Standard in occupational health and safety (OHS), a fact supported by the length of time and horse-trading that has occurred in its development. It will be an important OHS document for many countries as, for some, it is a first. For Western countries, like Australia, New Zealand and Britain, ISO45001 is the latest in a long line of safety management standards, so the hype is more muted.

The new features of this Standard have been outlined in

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Safety At Work Talks podcast launched

The popularity of Australian podcasting about workplace safety is increasing with a personable Sydney occupational health and safety (OHS) lawyer launching one this month. SafetyAtWorkBlog is also joining that growth with the Safety At Work Talks podcast this week.

SafetyAtWorkBlog originally podcasted a decade ago through iTunes. I participated in a podcast series last year called Cabbage Salad and Safety. Safety At Work Talks is going to be a series that complements the SafetyAtWorkBlog by providing exclusive interviews with prominent safety people and academics.

Safety At Work Talks already has a series of episodes recorded with Professor Sidney Dekker. These will cover

Dekker’s Safety Differently documentary,
Dekker’s April 2017 book – “The End of Heaven”,
Dekker’s new (November 2017) book – “The Safety Anarchist – Relying on human expertise and innovation; reducing bureaucracy and compliance“, and
A brief chat about how Just Culture has changed.

The first of these episodes is Professor Sidney Dekker talking to me, Kevin Jones, about his new documentary “Safety Differently”. You can hear it below or at this link: https://soundcloud.com/safetyatworkblog/safetyatworktalks-dekker-doco-101017

Safety At Work Talks will be available for listening through a number of podcast platforms, including the SafetyAtWorkBlog site:

Podbean – https://safetyoz.podbean.com/

SoundCloud – https://soundcloud.com/safetyatworkblog

Kevin Jones

Safety Differently – The Movie reviewed

One of the best elements of Sidney Dekker’s new Safety Differently documentary is that he is only in it for a few of its thirty minutes. It is not that he has nothing to say but the expected audience for this documentary would already be familiar with Dekker’s take on Safety Differently.

This documentary provides what has been needed for the Safety Differently movement for some time – case studies, trials and experiments. It was always possible to understand the theory but it was difficult to see how the theory would be implemented. Partly this was because the implication was that Safety II concepts replaced Safety I. Rather Safety Differently is a transition from I to II and over a considerable time.

This documentary, which is free to view and released on October 10, 2017. includes three stories – one each from oil & gas, health care and retail supermarkets.

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Near Kill – Jim Ward speaks

Jim Ward is hardly known outside the Australian trade union movement but many people over the age of thirty, or in the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession, may remember the person Esso blamed for the Esso Longford explosion in 1998. Just after the nineteenth anniversary of the incident that killed two workers and injured eight other, SafetyAtWorkBlog interviewed Ward about the incident but, more significantly, also about how that incident changed his world view.

For some time now Jim Ward has been the National OHS Director for the Australian Workers’ Union. Here is a long interview with Ward that provides a useful perspective on OHS while Australia conducts its National Safe Work Month.

[Note: any links in the text have been applied by SafetyAtWorkBlog]

SAWB: Jim, what happened at Longford, and what did it mean for you.

JW: So, on 25 September 1998, I got up out of bed and went to work, just as I’d done for the previous 18 years of my working life, at the Esso gas plant facility at Longford in Victoria.

There was nothing unforeseen or untoward about that particular day. But due to, as one judge elegantly described it, “a confluence of events”, it turned out to be the most significant day of my life.

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Hollnagel, Safety II and Captain Hindsight

The ideal outcome of attending a safety conference or seminar is to hear something new, some innovation that inspires, or gain a hint for a potential opportunity. In occupational health and safety (OHS) this rarely happens. So the most common outcome is clarification or reinforcement. This was my experience at a Professor Erik Hollnagel seminar in Melbourne on October 3, 2017.

Hollnagel’s Safety II concept has been round for several years now and has had considerable influence on the thinking of OHS professionals, if no one else. Safety II has generated several commercial and academic offshoots that provide hope for a more realistic and practical application of safety principles.

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Vision Zero, Zero Harm, … WTF?

The launch of a “Vision Zero” campaign about occupational health and safety (OHS) was a major element of the recent World Congress on Safety and Health at Work but it has created confusion and some alarm.

The Secretary-General of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Hans-Horst Konkolewsky told SafetyAtWorkBlog that Vision Zero “is not a Zero Harm campaign”. However confusion appeared on the first day of the Congress when an organisation was given a Vision Zero award for a safety program that the organisation has just and repeatedly described as “Zero Harm”.

The best solution to this confusion is to ignore the Vision Zero branding and look at the intentions and resources behind the razzamatazz. If you do, there is a lot of good information.

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Category: safety culture

Industrial manslaughter debate reveals commitment and misunderstandings

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Safety At Work Talks podcast launched

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Hollnagel, Safety II and Captain Hindsight

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Vision Zero, Zero Harm, … WTF?

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