WorkSafe Victoria has just concluded a Safe Work Month webinar on psychosocial hazards and psychological risks, attended by around 14,000. The content was familiar to anyone who has been following the development of Victoria’s new occupational health and safety (OHS) over the last four years, but it was an important communications opportunity for WorkSafe with useful insight into employers’ perspectives on mental health at work.
Militant construction unions in Australia have damaged the relationship between the community and the trade union movement. Although the typical trade union member may be a nurse, a teacher, or a public servant, most would depict a member as a big, aggressive, rude, and domineering man. Australia’s trade union movement is trying to redress this perception, but it cannot progress until it eliminates the unsafe behaviour of the organisers of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). The Queensland government is set to give reform a red-hot go.
Many people in Australia are asking why any woman would consider a career in the military, given the considerable risk of sexual harassment, abuse and assaults. Occupational health and safety (OHS) and risk management disciplines often draw on many of the risk assessment processes and principles from the defence forces; however, there appear to be significant and intransigent risks in that sector.
Note: This article mentions suicide
Occupational health and safety (OHS) is the central theme of this blog, but it is essential to remember that not all workplace health and safety actions are governed by a single set of laws or a single regulatory agency. Safety in the retail sector offers a good example.
The community in Melbourne, Australia, has been talking about little else but a sex abuse scandal in the childcare industry. (It makes a difference from talking about beef wellingtons.) The media and the government are announcing and investigating various regulatory and enforcement options to prevent a recurrence. This abuse is a grave concern and not one that was unexpected, as earlier inquiries had identified the risk. The prevention of sexual harm to children has an occupational health and safety (OHS) context that should not be ignored.
Many of the prominent Australian mining companies are in the process of changing their cultures to minimise the risk of sexual assaults and harassment after several recent damning inquiries into worker health and safety. Everyone seems to agree that cultural change can take a long time. I am not convinced. Change will take time if one operates within the existing organisational and operational parameters and structures. But sometimes, the harm to workers is so great that a long time exacerbates unfairness and injustice.
This is the second in a possible series of articles based on an artificial intelligence analysis of decades of audio interviews and recordings with occupational health and safety professionals, academics, lawyers and more used for this blog and my other writings. This time, I asked:
What are the most substantial impediments to improving the health and safety of workers?
Several substantial impediments to improving worker health and safety emerge from the conversations:
