The Queensland Division of the Safety Institute of Australia regularly produces a newsletter/magazine of consistent quality and the November 2010 edition is available online.
This edition includes an article by Warwick Pearse on the Montara oil spill. Pearse did not have the luxury of access to the final reports or government’s response but he makes sound recommendations.
Every year, around this time, law firms and OHS regulators release statements and good OHS advice about the risks of Christmas and end-of-year work parties. But companies who wait until now to introduce control measures and policies for the risks of occupational violence, sexual harassment and reputational damage have, largely, missed the opportunity to effectively manage these risks.
The need to enforce safe behaviours at work functions is not a seasonal process but one that is integral to the establishment of a safe workplace culture the year round. This is not to say that a friendly reminder is not useful but, if managed well, it should be nothing more than a reminder.
Of all the OHS advice for parties, Workplace Health & Safety Queensland is most succinct:
- “remind staff about workplace policies in particular bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination
- serve alcohol responsibly
- provide food and non-alcoholic drinks Continue reading “Controlling Christmas party risks is a year-round activity”
Scandinavia has been the region of choice for many OHS and industrial relations reforms but now something has come from the other side of the world, New Zealand, which should excite OHS professionals.
The Department of Labour (DoL) has released a “self-help diagnostic tool” to identify safety culture. The DoL Workplace Services Group Manager, Maarten Quivooy, says
“One of the best ways to improve a safety culture is to start measuring it. This tool gives businesses the guidance they need to understand what’s working well and where there is room for improvement…
“It can be used by any industry or business that is motivated to improve its health and safety performance. Ultimately it will help a business make a start diagnosing its culture and, most importantly, planning for change. Building a better safety culture builds a better business.”
The basis of the tool is a short survey which includes 24 simple questions that will generate important discussions individually but could provide a fairly decent indication of a company’s safety culture if the workplace honestly completes it. Continue reading “New safety culture diagnostic tool”
Australian Professor Andrew Hopkins is currently in the United States advising the Chemical Safety Board in its investigation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Several months ago it was rumoured that Hopkins would be part of the Commission of Inquiry, a rumour quickly denied by Hopkins and others.
According to a media release from FutureMedia, Hopkins will
“…spend several months working at the Board’s office in Denver as well as interviewing company managers in both the US and in London, where BP is headquartered.”
Hopkins has been interviewed by many media outlets in relation to the Gulf Oil Spill and BP’s safety culture due to his investigation of the Texas Oil Refinery explosion at a BP facility in 2005. Continue reading “Australian OHS expert in advisory role on Gulf oil spill”
I often have my “western” assumptions punctured by evidence from the non-western or majority world. Recently SafetyAtWorkBlog has reported on workplace suicide statistics but a report made available through the World Health Organisation says
“Low-income countries in Asia and the Pacific have the highest burden of suicide in the world. These countries are among the poorest globally, and face many social and political challenges.”
This report reminds me that although the westerners may claim to be short of resources, most countries have much less yet are still morally obliged to provide social support. It also speaks about cultural change and the application of new strategies. Continue reading “Suicide research and cultural change”
A member of the Safety Institute of Australia, Sue Bottrell, has taken offence at some of the content in this SafetyAtWorkBlog article. She has claimed, in a proposed legal action against me, that my blog article, based on an article written by Gavin Waugh and published in Australian Safety Matters Magazine, has defamed her.
Similar legal action is being taken by her against Gavin Waugh, who has indicated that he will be contesting the accusations.
I regret that any element of the SafetyAtWorkBlog article was able to be misinterpreted and caused offence to Sue Bottrell.
The need for food parcels for those on workers’ compensation seems to continue in South Australia according to a 3 July 2010 report in Adelaide Advertiser. SafetyAtWorkBlog mentioned the service being offered by Rosemary Mackenzie-Ferguson and others in March 2010.
There are many areas of society that are supported by privately provided social services and this situation is likely to persist but just as soup kitchens illustrate a problem of poverty, so the food service mentioned above indicates a problem with workers’ compensation.
As each Australian state reviews its workers’ compensation laws ahead of a national harmonisation, it seems absurd to focus on the laws but not on the social impacts of those laws. It is common to refer to a “whole-of-government” approach to issues but “whole-of-society” seems to be a slower concept to embrace.
Much is being made in Australia’s OHS harmonisation process of the need to look at the enforcement policies that support new legislation. There is also a (flawed) reliance on Courts to provide clarity to the legislation rather than producing clear laws in the first place. But rarely does government look beyond the law, the Courts, or the enforcement policies to assess the potentially negative social impacts of the OHS and workers’ compensation laws. Continue reading “Social change through worker dignity”