SafeWork – Page 5 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

It looks like OHS does not matter to the government

One of Australia’s Budget documents, released this week, that should be very relevant to occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates is Budget Statement 4, which is called “Measuring What Matters Statement”. This discusses the measurement of budget decisions compared to a tweaked version of the OECD Framework for Measuring Well-being and Progress.

One of the most disappointing statements in this paper is on page 138:

“Australia does not have an overarching progress and well-being national framework or centralised set of indicators.”
page 138

Two OHS regulators under investigation

Almost all the government agencies that regulate occupational health and safety (OHS) in Australia have been subjected to various independent inquiries. These inquiries have been a mix of political, financial and cultural. The review of SafeworkSA closes submissions at the end of this week. SafeWorkNSW is to have a six-month audit (paywalled) of its performance by the NSW Auditor-General, according to Adele Ferguson in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Auditor-General is yet to release a media statement on the audit, but Ferguson identifies several serious concerns.

Resilience training is not dead, but it is coughing up blood

[This article was submitted to The Age (and elsewhere) as a soft counter to so many workplace articles about health and safety that never include content from an occupational health and safety (OHS) specialist. It was never used, even though rewrites were requested.

So it gets used here and in support of this curious month of October where, in Australia, there are two separate monthly themes – Mental Health and Work Health and Safety. That these themes continue to be separate says heaps about the culture in each of these sectors]

Australian jurisdictions are amending their workplace health and safety (WHS) legislation to specify that the unavoidable duties and obligations of employers must now include the psychological health of their workers and not just physical health. These reasonable and long overdue moves are manifesting in new laws, and new guidances supported by new International Management Standards. The kicker in these changes is that, at least in Victoria, employers will no longer be able to rely solely on awareness training or resilience training to manage workplace mental health. This position could, and should, challenge traditional mental health trainers and lobbyists to recalibrate their workplace strategies.

HWSA on psychological health at work

The Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) is a strange concoction. It operates separately from Safe Work Australia but has some overlapping memberships. According to SWA, HWSA:

“is made up of representatives from work health and safety regulators across Australia and New Zealand. They work together to promote and implement best practice in work health and safety in the areas of policy and legislative matters, education and enforcement. Our CEO attends HWSA meetings as an observer.”

In March this year, SafetyAtWorkBlog put some questions to HWSA about psychological risks in the workplace, a topic that has heated up over the last couple of years. The intention was to obtain an idea about HWSA’s “best practice” perspective. The responses were okay but limited, as one can see below.

Workplace suicide at one of the “Big 4” consulting firms

Warning: this article discusses suicide

Discussions about workplace mental health are everywhere, including this blog, but workplace suicides are less discussed, even though there is a direct connection between the two themes. This is due to the continuing stigmatisation of suicide, legal caution, reputational preservation and other factors. It is difficult to write about but necessary to do so.

Recently an EY (formerly Ernst Young) employee died at work after a work function. Some media has reported on this tragic incident, but EY has been under media scrutiny for some time about its workplace culture.

SafeWorkSA’s approach to psychological harm is as much as it can do but doesn’t have to be

The harm presented by working in Australia’s mining sector has been a concern for a long time. Over the last decade or two, the psychosocial harm from the same work has come to the fore. The occupational health and safety (OHS) responsibility sits clearly with the employers who, in Australia, are often well-resourced national and international corporations. Recently SafeWorkSA issued a media release entitled “Sexual harassment in mining sparks campaign“. SafetyAtWorkBlog took the opportunity to put some questions to the South Australia OHS agency, to which it has responded.

New mental health code and regulations

Last week Safe Work Australia released its “Managing psychosocial hazards at work – Code of Practice“. It offers solid guidance on psychosocial hazards reflective of the work already conducted by Victoria, New South Wales and other jurisdictions and in support of the new regulations in the Model Work Health and Safety laws. In connection with a blog article earlier today, the Code provides some insight into cognitive demands.

Category: SafeWork

It looks like OHS does not matter to the government

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Two OHS regulators under investigation

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Resilience training is not dead, but it is coughing up blood

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HWSA on psychological health at work

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Workplace suicide at one of the “Big 4” consulting firms

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SafeWorkSA’s approach to psychological harm is as much as it can do but doesn’t have to be

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New mental health code and regulations

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