In support of Australia’s Safe Work Month, I have recorded a 12-minute opinion piece on how Australian politics since 2010 has affected the perception and development of occupational health and safety, based on past SafetyAtWorkBlog articles.
It is an interesting opportunity to reflect on the decisions and actions of influential individuals like Julia Gillard, Kristina Keneally, Jeff Lawrence, and David Gregory.
Occupational health and safety (OHS) can feel like a humdrum career when working in a low-risk, well-managed organisation. But the wheels of change roll on. Here’s a quick sample of some of that activity over the last week or so that you are unlikely to see elsewhere.
Dean Yates is a prominent Australian speaker on the issue of moral injury. Yesterday, at a WorkSafe Tasmania seminar, Yates brought the 250 attendees up to date on the status of moral injury and its occupational context. Although this seminar was a Safe Work Month event, Yates’ information requires some thought to fit with the occupational health and safety (OHS) and psychological hazards contexts.
Further to last week’s article about occupational health and safety (OHS) in horse racing, Minister Pettersson provided clarification to the ACT Parliament, sort of.
The most significant challenges for employers in Victoria’s new OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations, supported by a new Compliance Code, are likely to be fostering a strong workplace safety culture. Occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates have been emphasising the importance of culture for several decades now (Sociologists examined it decades before). It appears that we will be hearing a great deal more about culture for some time to come, but what is expected of employers?
Prominent occupational health and safety (OHS) lawyers Dale McQualter and Catherine Dunlop have just concluded the first of two online seminars about Victoria’s new psychological/psychosocial regulations and compliance code. Many employers will have a lot of work to do to comply, but the overall sense was one of reassurance.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Brodie Panlock. I have been thinking of her a lot over the last few months as Victorian employers (finally) start to seriously consider their legislative obligations to provide a mentally safe and healthy work environment. I wonder whether the new psychosocial safety regulations had been in place in 2005-06, Brodie Panlock would have lived.
[Note: This article discusses issues related to suicide.]
