On 8 February 2010, four workers at Café Vamp, a small restaurant in Melbourne Victoria, were fined a total of $A335,000 for repeatedly bullying, or allowing bullying to occur to, 19-year-old Brodie Panlock. Brodie jumped from a building in September 2006. Her family watched Brodie die from head injuries three days later. They were unaware that Brodie was being bullied at work.
Recently the Victorian Premier, John Brumby reshuffled his Cabinet and created a new portfolio the “Respect Agenda”. The Minister with responsibility for the portfolio is ex-footballer Justin Madden. Very little has been revealed about the agenda, which has been launched after a major international kerfuffle over serious racist attacks against Indian students. It is likely to be relevant that 2010 is an election year for Victoria.
It is useful to consider these political pledges in the light of the workplace-related suicide of Brodie Panlock in 2006. Continue reading ““Respect Agenda” – seriously?”
On 22 January 2010 Comcare issued a safety alert concerning the use of quad bikes (available on the Comcare website from 25 January 2010):
“Employers who own and operate quad bikes should be aware of the hazards and potential safety risks.
Following some recent accidents while operating quad bikes, a draft Code of Practice is currently being developed by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and Distributors [FCAI] relating to the ‘Use of All Terrain Vehicles in the Workplace’.
Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) has also formed a working party comprising of OHS Regulators and industry representatives to look at strategies to improve quad bike safety. Continue reading “Australia’s Comcare issues safety alert on quad bikes”
SafeWorkSA has issued media releases on 20 January 2010 concerning two recent decisions from the Industrial Relations Court. The first of these will a situation of bypassing a machine guard that is all too familiar to OHS professionals –
“a pair of vice grips had been attached to the finger guard at the front of the press, restricting its full range of movement and allowing access to the main moving parts during operation”.
The plant was a Hallbank 40 Tonne Front Press and the operator, Karen Carter, was unfamiliar with the machine. Prior to this hearing there was a dispute of facts hearing concerning who set up the press prior to the incident. Continue reading “Finger amputation and arc flash burns”
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has come in for a lot of “stick” over the last few years by seemingly over-reacting to OHS hazards. In many cases, these reports have come from a misinterpretation of OHS rules and guidelines or a misunderstanding of the basic principles of safety. In some cases it is simply a beat-up my England’s tabloid media.
However, this attitude to safety and the creation of a misperception of OHS has annoyed the HSE. Below is a video that the HSE produced, going by the tone of the video, in response to the bad press.
The “Right People” campaign seems familiar to many other campaigns attempted around the world and the introduction depicting silly headlines shows that the HSE is think-skinned.
Much more successful is the HSE’s recent campaign about safety in farming. Continue reading “Getting safety promotion right”
At the launch of a new guidance for higher education students in late November 2009, Judith Hackett CBE, chair of the Health & Safety Executive spoke at length on a range of interesting matters but one section on leadership was particularly interesting:
“Strong leadership, engagement and a common sense approach are key to effective health and safety in any and every organisation. Leadership is fundamental because it sets the tone for whether health and safety happens or not, and how it happens. The type of health and safety culture that exists in organisations will be decided by how leaders manage it.
If they see that it makes good business sense this will lead to openness and involvement. Leaders will be seen to care about the people they employ and manage. But if, on the other hand leaders see health and safety as being all about bureaucracy, paperwork and procedures, this is likely to lead to health and safety being seen as a chore, a burden and therefore not properly and appropriately addressed.”
Some of the best OHS writing comes from the personal. In a couple of days time a new book will go on sale that illustrates big issues from a niche context and brings to the research a degree of truth from the personal experiences of the author.
Pia Markkanen has written “Shoes, glues and homework – dangerous world in the global footwear industry” which packs in a range of issues into one book. The best summary of the book comes from the Preface written by the series editors.
“Pia Markkanen’s extraordinary first hand investigation of the dangers of home work in the shoe industry in the Philippines and Indonesia is an important contribution to our understanding of work, health and the global economy. She also carefully documents the intersection of gender relations and hierarchy with the social relations of “globalised” economic development and reveal as the important implications for the health of women, men and children as toxic work enters the home.”
As one reads this book, local equivalents keep popping into the reader’s head. For instance, Markkanen’s discussion of the home as workplace raises the definition of a “workplace” that is currently being worked through in Australia. She briefly discusses the definition in her chapter “Informal Sector, Informal Economy” where she refers to an ILO Home Work Convention, and usefully distinguishes between the homeworker and the self-employed, a distinction that Australian OHS professionals and regulators should note.
Markkanen does not impose a Western perspective on her observations and acknowledges that regardless of the global economic issues and social paradigms, “shoemakers felt pride for their work”. This pride goes some way to explaining why workers will tolerate hazards that others in other countries would not. In many OHS books this element is often overlooked by OHS professionals and writers who are puzzled about workers tolerating exposure and who look to economic reasons predominantly.
In South East Asia, limited knowledge can be gleaned from literature reviews as the research data is sparse. Markkanen interviewed participants first hand and, as mentioned earlier, this provides truth and reality. She describes the shoe makers’ workshops in Indonesia:
“Shoe workshops are filled with hazardous exposures to glues, primers, and cleaning agents, unguarded tools, and dust. Work positions are often awkward, cuts and burns are common, as are respiratory disorders. Asthma and breathing difficulties are widespread when primers were in use. Workers were reluctant to visit doctors because of the expense.”
She then reports on the interviews with Mr. Salet, a shoe manufacturer, Ms. Dessy, the business manager, Mr Iman, the business owner, Mr Ari, a skilled shoemaker, and many others.
Markkanen also illustrates the shame that the minority world and chemical manufacturers should feel about the outsourcing of lethal hazards to our fellows. In the chapter, “Shoemaking and its hazards”, she writes:
“Shoe manufacturing will remain a hazardous occupation as long as organic solvents are applied in the production. It is notable that in 1912, the Massachusetts Health Inspection report declared that naphtha cement, then in use for footwear manufacturing, was considered hazardous work. The 1912 report also referred to a law which required the exclusion of minors from occupations hazardous to health – the naphtha cement use was considered such hazardous work unless a mechanical means of ventilation was provided and the cement containers were covered…. minors were prohibited from using the cement. Almost a century later, hazardous footwear chemicals are still applied – even by children – in the global footwear industry.”
There is little attention given to the OHS requirements of majority world governments by OHS professionals in the West, partly because the outsourcing of manufacturing to those regions has led to the reporting of OHS infringements and human rights issues more than information about the legislative structures.
Markkanen provides a great section where she describes the OHS inspectorate resources of the Indonesian Government and the fact that Indonesian OHS law requires an occupational safety and health management system. Granted this requirement is only for high-risk industries or business with more than 100 employees but there are many other countries that have nothing like this. Markkanen quotes Article 87 of the Manpower Act 2003:
“Every enterprise is under an obligation to apply an occupational safety and health management system that shall be integrated into the enterprise’s management system.”
It is acknowledged that this section of legislation is hardly followed by business due to attitude and the lack of enforcement resources but we should note that safety management is not ignored by majority world governments.
Lastly, Markkanen provides a chapter on the gender issues associated with the shoemaking industry. She makes a strong case for the further research into the area but it is a shame that to achieve improvements in women’s health the reality is that
“women’s health needs female organizers and female women trade union leaders who understand women’s concerns”.
Some male OHS professionals may be trying to be “enlightened” but this seems to not be enough to work successfully in some Asian cultures.
Overall this book provides insight by looking at a small business activity that illustrates big issues. The book is a slim volume of around 100 pages and it never becomes a difficult read because it is concise and has a personal presence that other “academic” books eschew. As with many Baywood Books, the bibliographies are important sources of further reading.
At times it was necessary to put the book aside to digest the significance of some of the information. Occasionally the reality depicted was confronting. Baywood Books could do well by encouraging more writers to contribute to it Work, Health & Environment Series.
[SafetyAtWorkBlog received a review copy of this book at no charge. We also noted that, according to the Baywood Books website, the book is available for another couple of weeks at a reduced price.]