safety – Page 453 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Ethics & Safety

Ethics is gaining an increased level of attention in the safety profession in Australia but remains way behind other professions and the business community in general.

The UK’s Ethical Corporation Institute has made available a “pubcast” with one of the authors of a report entitled “Best Practices for Designing Effective Ethics Programmes”. The report itself is only for sale so I recommend you gain as much information from the podcast as possible or request a summary.

Interestingly a world-class ethics expert has returned recently to Australia after many years on the international stage. Howard Whitton will be conducting a workshop in Melbourne on 30 March 2009 concerning “Managing Ethics and Values: Beyond the Code of Conduct”. Below is an article I wrote about a seminar I attended early in 2008

Kevin Jones, BA, FSIA

Howard Whitton is one of those Australians who are obscure but when brought to one’s attention you feel guilty that you did not know of him. I first heard Howard speak at an ethics seminar in Melbourne in early 2008.
I attended from curiosity because the safety profession, by and large, in Australia has paid lip-service to professional ethics, and still does. I attended an Ergonomics Society conference almost ten years ago in Sydney where one of the speakers, a member of the society, spoke about professional ethics. Apparently that it was the first time that the Ergonomics conference had ever “discussed” ethics.

Other organizations profess to have an ethics procedure but this is shrouded in secrecy making it difficult for members to know the ethical parameters of a profession. Professional ethics come from open and active discussion of issues such as conflict of interest, confidentiality, whistleblowing, rather than developing a few sheets on professional conduct and thinking the process has ended.

Howard’s presentation in Melbourne surprised. It was in plain English, and overwhelmingly relevant. Howard had a professional film scenario that he based his presentation on. The film involved all the elements of a road construction program from political pressure, safety compliance, environmental considerations, resource allocation, and personal choice. It showed the decision-making processes that safety professional frequently face themselves or have an active role in. It was a microcosm of the project manager’s contemporary role.

The moments I remember are when bones are discovered in the construction project. This echoed the need to manage a project in sensitive environmental areas. One of the workers takes photos of each stage of the project as a hobby, without realizing the photos could be evidence. The project manager is already working within the project parameters when a political (undocumented) element appears that substantially affects the project.

I had half-expected a dry academic discussion and ended up in a fascinating safety-themed debate. If there was one SIA seminar that I would attend this year it would be one of Howard’s workshops being held in late-March in Melbourne, prior to the Safety In Action Conference.

For those members who, like me, weren’t aware of Howard Whitton, I would strongly recommend you look at the online resources listed below.

According to the Ethicos website:

“Following a career as a public servant in Australia, Howard has worked since 1999 in 11 countries as a specialist consultant on Public Sector Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Whistleblower Protection, institutional integrity systems, ethics codes, disciplinary investigations, and training/capacity-building in ‘Ethical Competence’, both for public services and international organisations. After completing a three-year term at the OECD’s Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate in Paris, Howard was asked to serve as one of two independent specialists helping to establish the new Ethics Office for the UN Secretariat. Since 2006 Howard has been Team Leader on various Ethics/Integrity/Anti-corruption capacity-building projects for national governments, UN specialist agencies, and international NGOs.”

Lucky for us Howard is spending some time at home in Queensland.

International Women’s Day (of safety)

The global theme for the 2009 International Women’s Day (8 March 2009) is

“Women and men united to end violence against women and girls”

The organising committee is at pains to stress that although this is a global theme, individual nations, individual states and organisations are able to set their own themes. Some themes already chosen include

Australia, UNIFEM: Unite to End Violence Against Women
Australia, QLD Office for Women: Our Women, Our State
Australia, WA Department for Communities: Sharing the Caring for the Future
UK, Doncaster Council: Women’s Voices and Influence
UK, Welsh Assembly Government: Bridging the Generational Gap

Given that Australian health care workers suffer occupational violence, amongst many other sectors, and that employers are obliged to assist workers who may be subjected to violence at work or the consequences of non-work-related violence, it seems odd that so often the major advocates of International Women’s Day remain the unions.

It is also regrettable that many of the themes internationally and locally are responding to negatives rather than motivating action from strengths.

As is indicated from the list above, the public sector agencies are keen to develop programs around the international day. The societal and career disadvantages of women are integral to how safety is managed.

Stress, violence, adequate leave entitlements, security, work/life balance, chronic illness – all of these issues are dealt with by good safety professionals. Perhaps a safety organisation or agency in Australia could take up the theme of “Safe work for women” and look at these issues this year using gender as the key to controlling these hazards in a coordinated and cross-gender fashion.

In support of women’s OHS (if there can be such a specific category), readers are reminded of an excellent (and FREE) resource written by Melody Kemp called Working for Life: Sourcebook on Occupational Health for Women

Kevin Jones

Safety Qualifications

Each year Australian recruiting company SafeSearch releases a remuneration survey. This year the report was released in late-February 2009.

A media release from SafeSearch reports that

“Almost all HSE Managers hold formal safety qualifications with 90% reaching Diploma level or higher.”

In Victoria, in particular, there is a strong professional community generated from the Victorian Institute of Occupational Safety & Health, located at the University of Ballarat. The OHS studies at VIOSH have always been the course of choice because it is one of the oldest of the OHS courses and it was given a high profile by the lecturer also being on the national OHS body, Professor Dennis Else.

The standing of VIOSH graduates is high but it seems that part of the reason is that the students have always been drawn from the already-employed. The course has also required a four-week residency that may generate considerable focus on OHS and has the benefit of established a camaraderie reminiscent of boarding school. Many students seem to be drawn from those corporations or government departments that allow for study leave.

The SafeSearch report says the trend to degree-qualified safety professionals is only a recent phenomenon. The Director of SafeSearch, Julie Honore said

“While we have always seen a strong requirement for Environmental professionals to be degree qualified the trend for safety professionals has only been evolving and becoming stronger more recently.

Whereas once our clients were prepared to consider unqualified people, that is no longer the case. We are seeing a trend of experienced Managers enrolling to take on more studies to ensure they are competitive in the market.”

Honore also warns about students implying a greater level of knowledge than reality

“We have had numerous instances where candidates have included qualifications on their resumes but once these are checked out further, you often find that they have only recently commenced studying towards a qualification as they have recognised the need for formal qualifications to assist in making them marketable. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is important that this is correctly stated on the resume”.

From the recruiter’s perspective, verification of qualifications is very important but, more broadly, it is important to look at the quality of the course in order to gauge the quality of the qualification. Is one diploma of OHS the same as another? – No. Is the quality of instruction the same across tertiary institutions? – No. But is this important? Perhaps we should be assessing the person and not the paper.

But how do we do that with a new recruit? Wouldn’t it be helpful to have an external assessment of safety management skills? Perhaps, a registration system? But many of those stem from a base qualification of a university degree.

Safety qualifications and competencies is a difficult area to understand and most of the people investigating the issue are from academia and so have a vested interest in the research.

The Safety Profession is at risk of limiting its selection criteria too narrowly and developing irrelevance. It is similar to the operation of political parties where candidates for election on the conservative side come mostly from law practices and employer associations and those on the left of politics come from law practices and trade unions. The politicians may still be able to represent their constituents but they do not reflect the electorate and, it could be argued, represent narrow desires of the electorate.

The Safety Profession needs to draw from a much broader pool of skills, understanding and experience if it is to continue to develop and improve. It should not only draw upon those who can afford a tertiary qualification or who is supported by their employers financially or through study leave.

Even if the bulk of the profession is tertiary qualified it must actively seek those from outside the established structures. Any profession that does not recruit widely and wisely runs the risk of becoming too “chummy”, elitist and, eventually, irrelevant.

Kevin Jones

Note: the author is one unit shy of a Graduate Diploma in Risk Management (OHS) from Swinburne University

Safety Interviews

A couple of weeks ago I conducted interviews with several speakers in the Safety In Action Conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia at the end of March 2009. The finalised videos are below.

Helen Marshall is Australia’s Federal Safety Commissioner who has a challenging job monitoring major government construction sites.

Dr Martyn Newman is a a fascinating speaker on the issues of leadership and emotional intelligence and how safety professionals can benefit for applying these concepts to their corporate aims.

Jill McCabe is a recent member of WorkSafe Victoria who provides quite startling survey information on the attitudes of supervisors to workplace safety.

Barry Sherriff is a partner with law firm Freehills and was recently also one of the review panellists into Australia’s OHS law review. Since this video, the final report of the panel has been publicly released and Barry will be discussing harmonisation at the Safety In Action conference.

John Merritt is the Executive Director of WorkSafe and a strong advocate of workplace safety.

Although part of my job is to help promote the Safety In Action conference, I have tried to provide a resource that will not be temporary and is actually useful to safety professionals everywhere.

Tip: Use the high quality YouTube settings if you can. It makes these much easier to view but does not improve the appearance of the interviewer.

Kevin Jones

Teenage worker’s death

AAP and The Australian newspaper today reported on the death of an 18-year-old in a factory located just north of SafetyAtWorkBlog’s office on 18 February 2009.

Initial reports say that the man was “dragged head first into a box-printing machine” when his clothing was caught. Firefighters took 45 minutes to extract the worker who died later in hospital.

It will be interesting to follow this case as the investigation and potential prosecution proceeds. It fits all the elements of safety campaigns over the last few years – young workers, inadequately guarded machines, risk assessments, risk controls, unnecessary deaths.

It is only a couple of months until International Workers’ Memorial Day when this worker’s name will be added to the annual roll-call of the dead.

Kevin Jones

Initial union comments on OHS Law Review Panel report

The Australian Council of Trade Unions’ submission to the national review of model OHS law was entitled “The Highest Standards For Harmonised OHS Law”. This is intriguing as the union movement is not happy with the concession that the final report of the review panel made concerning the right of a union to instigate and manage OHS prosecutions.

Geoff Fary, Assistant Secretary of the ACTU, told SafetyAtWorkBlog on 17 February 2009 said that the ACTU is still assessing the recommendations of the final review panel report and will probably release a more detailed response in early March 2009 but that the OHS harmonization process “should not result in a reduction in protection of workers’ entitlements or the rights of any group of workers.”

The ACTU has concerns

“if the result of this process is that the people who have benefited from that [right] no longer have it available. It therefore follows that one of the key things we are concerned about in the recommendation of the second report is that if it was adopted it would no longer be open for unions to initiate prosecutions when regulators fail to do so.”

Fary said that prosecutorial action by unions in New South Wales have always been successful and have lead to legislative change.

“Undoubtedly, in our view, the ability for unions to prosecute has been in the best interests of health and safety outcomes for workers.”

To some extent workers and the media are getting confused by the parallel reform processes of industrial relations and workplace safety. There is the potential for one stream to retard the process of the other. Geoff Fary said that this is unlikely as he thinks that the IR reforms could be “up and running before all of the OHS changes”.

Fary expressed the ACTU’s support for the declarations and actions of the International Labour Organisation but it is noted that media reports on 18 February illustrate that not all the union movement supports the ACTU President, Sharan Burrows’ perspective that Australia’s new industrial relations legislation meets international obligations “on balance”.

Kevin Jones

Edited audio of the interview with Geoff Fary can be accessed HERE

Previous SafetyAtWorkBlog postings concern Geoff are available

Should the OHS Profession be Regulated?

There is a strong campaign to improve the level of professionalism in occupational health and safety in Australia. Several safety-related bodies have achieved this already by being far-sighted and progressive, others have not. Concerns over the inconsistency of health and safety advice spurred WorkSafe Victoria to coordinate the establishment of a Health & Safety Professionals Alliance (HaSPA).

However it is possible that even this very recent initiative is becoming outdated.

Lessons from Accountants

One of the models that HaSPA is following is that of the accounting profession. Certification of this profession has existed for decades and has been supported by government as the preferred avenue for tax preparation and other similar financial measures. The prominence and solidity of the qualification and the diligence of enforcement by the professional bodies is impressive but part of that sector will soon become regulated by legislation.

Legislation being considered by the Australian Parliament will, according to media reports,

establish minimum standards for those professionals completing taxation returns;
maintain a registry of those suitably qualified;
improve the quality of advice of those not already in an accountancy professional body;
establish a national tax practitioner board;
introduce a code of professional conduct; and
develop civil penalties for certain types of misconduct by tax practitioners.

HaSPA has many hurdles to meet through its member bodies but there are several external to the process that should be considered.

Where’s the evidence?

Safety professionals are constantly advocating for evidence-based decisions. Sometimes this comes from researchers who also have one eye on research grants but given that decisions should be based on evidence, is there evidence that safety professionals have provided poor advice in the past? If so, where is it?

Buyer Beware

Also, is this so important? OHS legisaltion throughout Australia stipulates that the principal responsibility for managing safety in the workplace resides wiht the employer. The employer has an obligation to maintain a suitable state of knowledge of the hazards in their workplace and can seek advice from external advisers, should they choose. Why should caveat emptor not apply in the case of safety consultants?

The debate on OHS professionalism can be seen as a tussle between caveat emptor and caveat venditor with the argument tilting toward emptor because of the employer obligations in OHS law.

The move to somehow regulate the safety profession is an acknowledgement that the profession, as a whole, has done a poor job of regulating itself and establishing its credentials in the marketplace.

The business community is struggling with the global financial crisis showing that a free market leads to greed and chaos at the same time it is ideologically opposed to regulatory interference. The government’s OHS legislation is being pushed as an update, not new, in order to minimise the opposition from business. The business cost benefits are also being heavily promoted.

Could an argument be made that workplace safety could be improved more quickly and more effectively through a national registration of the safety profession? Accountancy is providing a model. Private certification is available in North America. Singapore already registers its safety professionals.

Either way, let’s see some evidence.

Kevin Jones

Category: safety

Ethics & Safety

Like this:

International Women’s Day (of safety)

Like this:

Safety Qualifications

Like this:

Safety Interviews

Like this:

Teenage worker’s death

Like this:

Initial union comments on OHS Law Review Panel report

Like this:

Should the OHS Profession be Regulated?

Lessons from Accountants

Where’s the evidence?

Buyer Beware

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Lessons from Accountants

Where’s the evidence?

Buyer Beware

Share this:

Like this: