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ILO provides thoughtful information for Workers’ Memorial Day

Workers’ Memorial Day, or the World Day for Safety and Health At Work, gains considerable attention at local levels.  In particular, Australia and Canada have a large number of commemorative events.  However, the activities of the International Labor Organization (ILO) should not be ignored and the activities for 2011 are of particular note.

The Deputy General of the ILO, Juan Somavia, reminds us that in 2001 the ILO published its Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems, a document that has had a major influence on those countries that do not have the resources necessary to develop their own OHS regulatory support services.

Ten years after the release of that document the ILO has released a reflective report entitled “OSH Management System: A tool for continual improvement”. This report reads as a little simple for those who focus on occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) but every so often even the most specialised of professionals needs to be reminded of the basic building blocks of that profession.  This is particularly so in countries like Australia, where the OHS profession is distracted by legal harmonisation, or England, where budget cuts and economic challenges are focussing business attention away from safety management.

The report reminds in plain English that

“The OSHMS approach ensures that:

Brodie’s Law on bullying needs more consideration for workplace application

Recent attention on the presentation of the Crimes Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2011 to the Victorian Parliament has, understandably, focussed on the changes to the criminal code. However some of that attention should also have been given to the existing rules and control measures under workplace law, particularly considering that the proposed amendments, commonly referred to as Brodie’s law, are being described in the context of workplace bullying.

WorkSafe Victoria’s 2005 guidance on workplace violence and bullying specifies what elements of the Crimes Act 1958 could be relevant to workplace bullying:

  • Intentionally or Recklessly Causing Serious Injury
  • Intentionally or Recklessly Causing Injury
  • Threats to Kill
  • Threats to Inflict Serious Injury
  • Stalking

The inclusion of the last item may surprise some who have been reading only the newspaper coverage of Brodie’s Law as there was a clear implication that the application of stalking to workplace bullying was new.

Law firm Clayton Utz reminds us that workplace bullying remains undefined in the Crimes Act and that the Bill

“… extends the definition of the pre-existing offence of stalking by expanding the definition of that offence to pick up the type of behaviours that are typical of workplace bullying.”

If the Bill passes the Victorian Parliament, the OHS regulator will need to amend its advice on workplace bullying to reflect the expanded definition of stalking. But as can be seen by the bullet points above, changes to guidance may be minor as stalking is already seen as a potential element of workplace bullying. Continue reading “Brodie’s Law on bullying needs more consideration for workplace application”

I wish for an OHS time machine

Certain memories

I cannot escape certain OHS memories.   They are the ones that inform many of the decisions I make in matters of health and safety.   Rightly or wrongly they feed my aspirations, my efforts, frustrations and my anger at what I see too often in many workplaces.   What I do and what I know feeds on these memories.

I recently inspected a workplace that uses huge amounts of chemicals.  The place was covered with health and safety signs and strongly smelled of a range of chemicals.   But overall it was clean, neat and half way respectful of workers’ health.   I could see workers here and there watching me walk around with the union delegate and H&S representative, and they knew that there would be a lunchtime mass meeting for me to say my piece.   But I couldn’t get Mr White out of my mind.  This was one of my persistent memories.   My personal OHS canaries warning me not to forget things.

I met him at the end of an extended OHS inspection I conducted at his workplace.   The manager on the day was decent and very helpful, he facilitated a great deal.  This factory used large amounts of a particular chemical, and has been for more than 30 years, his entire working life was spent in this factory working with this chemical.

He introduced himself unusually as ‘Mr White’, stuttered, smiled hesitantly and said, ‘Mick’, almost as if his first name was unimportant, just an afterthought.  He clutched a stack of papers tightly to his chest and waited for a gap in the conversation so he could say his bit.   Continue reading “I wish for an OHS time machine”

Online media slams Workcover SA report

Online newspaper, Indaily, has released a report by DeakinPrime which summarises a November 2010 summit conference on workers compensation.  DeakinPrime facilitated the summit

InDaily focuses on the following criticisms, amongst others, from the report:

  • a silo approach by Workcover
  • the lack of feedback
  • injured workers were not the prime consideration of Workcover
  • politicisation was leading to instability
  • a disassociated claims management process.

These criticisms are present in the full report  but the presence of criticisms should not surprise as the nature of these summits are usually twofold – the creation of innovative solutions and an avenue for complaint.  Continue reading “Online media slams Workcover SA report”

All speakers on OHS conference video should have been identified

The Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) has released a post Safety In Action conference video of vox-pops.  It’s mentioned in this blog as the editor, Kevin Jones, is included for several comments towards the end.

The intention of the video is to promote the next conference by reflecting on the previous.  This is a useful marketing tool that is not hard to create and, at face value, is informative, as far as it goes.

A major inconsistency or omission is that only a couple of speakers are identified.  This should not usually be an issue but several of the speakers should have been identified as committee members of the Safety Institute, these include:

  • The Vice President of the ACT Committee of Management
  • A committee member from Victoria
  • the current President of INSHPO and a former SIA National President.

There is no reason for some speakers to be identified and others not.  Identification of all speakers allows the viewer to filter between delegates who attend for professional development and those delegates who have a vested interest in promoting the conference.

The conference, as a whole, was better than expected and the vox-pops reflect that but the promotional video would have gained more authority by having all the speakers identified.

Kevin Jones

Trade unions enter debate on profits vs safety

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has issued a media release aimed at addressing or countering some of the concerns over new OHS laws expressed by the business community and some politicians recently.

Ged Kearney

ACTU President Ged Kearney has said

“Attempts by employer groups to weaken the new regulations are yet another example of business putting profits before safety….. Employer groups called for a national set of health and safety laws, and we would have thought that business would welcome a tough approach to OHS regulations.”

Sympathy for business is unlikely from the union movement but some sympathy is warranted.   Australian business was promised that new work health and safety laws would reduce the business costs of complying with laws that differed from across a number of jurisdictions.  As companies begin to assess the impacts of new laws on their own business operations, as all companies surely must do, they are noticing additional costs for compliance. Continue reading “Trade unions enter debate on profits vs safety”

Dis-harmonisation over OHS laws

Victoria’s largest OHS conference and trade show has ended.   The shadow of the impending harmonisation of OHS laws hung over both events.  The OHS message throughout the conference was one of nothing to worry about. WorkSafe’s Ian Forsythe felt that Victoria was well-placed for minimal disruption as the OHS laws in that State had been thoroughly reviewed by Chris Maxwell QC in 2003.  Forsythe described the current OHS review as “Maxwell on steroids”, a good line for the conference audience but one that reflects the, often, smug approach of many Victorians to the harmonisation process, an approach not shared elsewhere as shown by a front-page article in The Australian on 9 April 2011.

The Business Council of Australia is concerned about the different interpretations of the laws by each of the states.  This has been a possibility from the very start of the reform process because the focus was always harmonisation, not uniformity. Continue reading “Dis-harmonisation over OHS laws”

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