workplace – Page 142 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Home-based businesses need OHS consideration

SafetyAtWorkBlog is largely produced from a home-based business and the issues of safety, mental health, work/life balance are real issues in this business.

In the development of OHS regulations, a “workplace” has been fairly generic. For at least 50 years, our definition of “workplace” has reflected our individual experience of the places we have worked. (Lately, in Australia, a “workplace” has been designed as a place where work is performed, which raises lots of difficult issues in itself.) OHS regulations are rarely written by workers in a home-based business and sometimes the regulations miss this important sector of the workforce and the community.

An article on women’s wages in the Australian Financial Review on 16 March 2010 (not available online without a subscription) includes one paragraph of interesting and relevant statistics: Continue reading “Home-based businesses need OHS consideration”

Gas, lungs, ladders, fruit picking and concrete pumping – latest workplace incidents

The media on 11 March 2010 was reporting the discovery of a the body of a hotel worker in a beer cellar of a Victorian hotel. WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the possibility of carbon dioxide.

As with so many cases of confined spaces, a second man was lucky to be alive after venturing into the cellar to check on the hotel worker. The police report suggested that the second man was making a delivery to the hotel.

At such an early stage in the investigation and with so little detail,it is hard to say more than what WorkSafe’s Stan Krpan said in a media release this afternoon:

“With or without a gas leak or chemical exposure, limited means of entry and exit, poor air circulation, and working in confined spaces, is risky. Continue reading “Gas, lungs, ladders, fruit picking and concrete pumping – latest workplace incidents”

Workplace bullying and restorative justice – how to help the families left behind

A feature article on workplace bullying in The Age newspaper on 10 March 2010 has the additional or secondary benefit of again raising the relevance of “restorative justice” to the issue of occupational safety and health.

The main element of the article is the McGregor family who had two children commit suicide over related issues. The son, Stuart McGregor, described as being chronically depressed, was being bullied at work. He confided in his sister, Angela McGregor, over the issues. Angela had been bullied at school. Alannah killed herself. A month later, Stuart followed.

WorkSafe investigated the bullying at Stuart’s place of work, substantiated Stuart’s claims are is determining what further action to take. The newspaper reports that there may be insufficient evidence to pursue the case through the Courts.

What the reporter, Helen Westerman, does is to relate the grief and hurt of the parents to the potential benefits of the application of “restorative justice” in workplace incidents. Continue reading “Workplace bullying and restorative justice – how to help the families left behind”

Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions

In October 2009, Australian lawyer, Michael Tooma gained considerable media coverage by stating that under the model Work Health and Safety Act:

“..if I call out a tradesperson to do some work at my home, my home is their workplace and I would be a person at their workplace. As such, I would have a duty to take reasonable care for my own safety and the safety of others and to cooperate with their reasonable instructions in my own home. If I breach that duty I could be liable for a criminal offence.”

At that time SafetyAtWorkBlog was skeptical as it was hard to believe that this likelihood, or regulatory loophole, would be allowed to continue. It seems that a decision in the New South Wales District Court on 4 March 2010 has provided Tooma with a case that supports his decision. Continue reading “Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions”

When looking to understand psychosocial issues, ask your grandparents

In February 2010, the New York Times ran an article about depression by Jonah Lehrer. The same article appeared in some of Australia’s weekend newspapers in early March. Lehrer looks at the issue of depression and considers whether there is a potential upside to the disorder by looking back as far as Charles Darwin for expressions of depression. He makes a challenging statement:

“…that depression has a secret purpose and our medical interventions are making a bad situation even worse. Like a fever that helps the immune system fight off infection — increased body temperature sends white blood cells into overdrive — depression might be an unpleasant yet adaptive response to affliction.”

Lehrer goes on to make a case for depression being a possible source of creativity.

He refers extensively to the evolutionary psychology research of Andy Thomson and Paul Andrews who acknowledge that

“… depression is a vast continuum, a catch-all term for a spectrum of symptoms.”

Perhaps, particularly in the relatively recent consideration of depression in workplaces, we are being too narrow and too specific. Perhaps the case for workplace depression being made by some of the “depression sellers” is too targeted and we need to remind ourselves of the sociology of work, a perspective that seems to have gone out of fashion. Continue reading “When looking to understand psychosocial issues, ask your grandparents”

“Imagination at work” but not safety

GE Capital placed a full-page pictorial advertisement in The Age newspaper on 4 March 2010 (page 5 of the business section). The ad, partly reproduced below, promotes the company’s financial services with the corporate slogan of “imagination at work”. Sadly safety at work wasn’t included in the ad.

SafetyAtWorkBlog readers are asked to list the workplace hazards in this picture. Continue reading ““Imagination at work” but not safety”

Workplace bullying data from Denmark

In occupational health and safety (OHS) and other workplace research, Scandinavia is often quoted. The application of research findings to other nations is of dubious value but often Scandinavian research provides clues to potential OHS hazards or control options.

In February 2010, the European Working Conditions Observatory published online a research report into workplace bullying. The report says

“Investigating the impact of bullying on psychological stress reactions according to the Impact of Event Scale, the NFA study finds that negative acts which potentially isolate the individual at the workplace, acts directed towards the person and unreasonable workloads induce most psychological stress.” Continue reading “Workplace bullying data from Denmark”

Category: workplace

Home-based businesses need OHS consideration

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Gas, lungs, ladders, fruit picking and concrete pumping – latest workplace incidents

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Workplace bullying and restorative justice – how to help the families left behind

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Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions

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When looking to understand psychosocial issues, ask your grandparents

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“Imagination at work” but not safety

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Workplace bullying data from Denmark

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