Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson, a frequent commentator at SafetyAtWorkBlog and prominent advocate on behalf of injured workers, led the Workers’ Memorial Day walk in Adelaide, South Australia today. She was instrumental in the establishment of a memorial garden in the state capital and explains the reasons for the garden and the significance of the garden in the video below.
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WorkCoverSA CEO faces hard tasks as new report damns WorkCover’s performance
Late April 2011 is becoming a period of turmoil in the South Australia’s WorkCover Corporation, on top of the government’s political turmoil from the sudden resignation of the Industrial Relations Minister, Bernard Finnigan, and a minister being charged with child pornography offences. According to inDaily on 21 April 2011, WorkCover’s Deputy CEO, Jeff Matthews, and Chief Financial Officer, Ian Rhodes, left the organisation suddenly. CEO Rob Thomson (ex-Workcover New South Wales) says that the positions were axed as part of a restructure.
On 27 April 2011, the most recent review into WorkCover’s operations was released. The March 2011 report finds that the state’s workers compensation scheme
“…shows little evidence of improved return to work performance, in spite of very heavy referrals to and cost of vocational rehabilitation compared to comparable scheme.” Continue reading “WorkCoverSA CEO faces hard tasks as new report damns WorkCover’s performance”
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:
- the implementation of preventive and protective measures is carried out in an efficient and coherent manner; Continue reading “ILO provides thoughtful information for Workers’ Memorial Day”
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.