safety – Page 357 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

If safety culture begins at the top, what message is the Australian Government sending on insulation installer deaths?

If safety culture is set and developed by leaders, what does it mean when a Prime Minister launches a scheme that places the creation of jobs over the need for worker safety?

Two days before International Workers’ Memorial Day, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners program analyses the failed insulation scheme initiated by the Australian Government in 2009.

According to the Four Corners website:

“Four Corners takes a forensic look at a chain of events that began with so many good intentions but ended in death and political humiliation. What exactly were the warnings given to the Department of Environment and the Minister Peter Garrett? Why did senior officials inside the Department reject safety concerns, preferring to play up the job creation aspects of the program?”

An audio preview of the Four Corners is available online. In that interview a whistleblower from the Department of the Environment states that

“..we were told that safety was of less importance than job creation.” Continue reading “If safety culture begins at the top, what message is the Australian Government sending on insulation installer deaths?”

How revolutionary could the Work Health and Safety Act be?

In April 2010, the Australian Government is busy negotiating a new health reform package. It is likely that the next stage of the reforms will be in the Australian Senate which brings Nick Xenophon into the negotiations. On 21 April 2010, The Australian reported Xenophon saying:

“…he had “an open mind” on the deal brokered by the Prime Minister yesterday but wanted to ensure it had a strong emphasis on preventative health, which was the ultimate “test of the health system”.”

Senator, Nick Xenophon, provides a good example of how personal ideals cross social boundaries and professional disciplines. His focus on the prevention of harm covers public safety and workplace safety illustrates the interconnection that an ethical stance can bring social issues that are governed under different laws and expectations. Continue reading “How revolutionary could the Work Health and Safety Act be?”

Bank CEO says he ‘can’t really have work-life balance’

Mike Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the ANZ Bank provided some insights into his life as a senior executive at a conference in Sydney on 21 April 2010. The most exciting information was a brief description of the assassination attempt on his life while working in South America but, in the context of health and safety, he also reveals a few nuggets of information.

Smith’s conference presentation was reported in the Australian Financial Review (article only available to subscribers) on 22 April 2010. He states as a CEO “you can’t really have work-life balance”. Continue reading “Bank CEO says he ‘can’t really have work-life balance’”

Australian safety conference – confused but in a good way

Day 2 of the Safety In Action Conference is almost over and I am confused. Some speakers say that safety cannot be improved without commitment from the most senior executives of a company. Others are saying that safety improvement can be best achieved by trusting employees.

One speaker questioned the validity of the risk management approach to safety. A colleague argued that this was not a return to prescriptive legislation, regulation and codes of practice but an opportunity for companies to assess their needs and set their own “rules” of compliance based on the risk assessment results, effectively determining their own level of OHS compliance.

Another speaker speculated that a particular Federal Minister may have been prosecuted under the model Work Health & Safety Act if Ministers had not been excluded from their duty of care.

Some see new the OHS laws as revolutionary, others see it as tweaking a legislative approach that is over 30 years old.

Some speakers I found thought-provoking, others thought these were facile and had lousy PowerPoint skills.

What this Safety In Action Conference in Australia has not been is dull. Continue reading “Australian safety conference – confused but in a good way”

New business safety survey released at safety conference

New survey data on business attitudes to safety was revealed at the Safety In Action Conference on 20 April 2010. The data was released jointly by the Australian Institute of Management and the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA).

In short there was not much that was new in the survey data but the survey was important for several reasons. Continue reading “New business safety survey released at safety conference”

Phenomenology and the safety professional

In Australia, safety management is being progressed most obviously through sociology and the work of Andrew Hopkins. But perhaps it is possible to cut through some of the commercial “safety culture” twaddle by looking at the work of philosophers and the concept of phenomenology. As any modern student seems to do instead of reading the original, look to the movie.

On 20 April 2010, Australian lawyer, Andrew Douglas, channeled The Matrix in trying to challenge the thinking of the audience of OHS professionals at the Safety In Action conference.

In his conference paper, Douglas compared the positive and negative safety cultures to the blue and red pill choice that Morpheus offers Neo. Continue reading “Phenomenology and the safety professional”

The fragility of evidence – suicide example

Workplace fatality data is an essential ingredient in benchmarking safety performance for business and government. Suicide statistics are equally important in the social and public health context.

The editorial in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia has some interesting comments on how suicide statistics have been collected in Australia over the last decade.

“….a great deal of caution must be employed when interpreting trends in suicide in Australia during the past decade, Continue reading “The fragility of evidence – suicide example”

Category: safety

If safety culture begins at the top, what message is the Australian Government sending on insulation installer deaths?

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How revolutionary could the Work Health and Safety Act be?

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Bank CEO says he ‘can’t really have work-life balance’

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Australian safety conference – confused but in a good way

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New business safety survey released at safety conference

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Phenomenology and the safety professional

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The fragility of evidence – suicide example

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