Reviews of OHS legislation by governments are usually keenly anticipated as they mostly occur once a system is broken. But there seems to be considerable trepidation with the plan announced on 14 June 2010, by the Prime Minister, David Cameron. Cameron has appointed Lord Young to undertake an extensive review of OHS. According to the Prime minister’s media statement: … Continue reading “Lord Young = old approach to OHS”
Following the post on the 2010 British election campaign a reader pointed out that David Cameron’s reviewer of OHS, Lord Young, spoke at the 2010 conference of the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) in late March 2010 and ruffled some feathers. Lord David Young described the public perception of OHS as “at best, as an object of ridicule and, at … Continue reading “Lord Young smashes bridges instead of building them at IOSH conference”
On 11 January 2010, the Tasmanian Workplace Relations Minister, Lisa Singh, announced a new safety focus on the abalone industry following the findings of a coronial inquest into the death of David Colson in 2007. There are several interesting elements to the Minister’s decision. Firstly and, perhaps, most importantly, the decision shows the significant role that Coroners in … Continue reading “Risk/Reward trade-off”
Regular readers will be aware that SafetyAtWorkBlog holds the belief that OHS legislation is not the same as managing workplace safety. Safety can be managed without recourse to law (this is what many mean when they say that “safety is just common sense”) but legislation provides some parameters in which that management occurs. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has issued … Continue reading “OHS law and safety management”
David Cameron, the leader of England’s Conservative Party, has spoken about the health and safety culture that he says is restricting personal and business options in England. In the full speech, Cameron clearly outlines an ideological agenda but it is a mistake to see this as an attack on the OHS regulator. Below is an … Continue reading “Tory leader calls for a “forensic examination” of health and safety culture”
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 … Continue reading “HSE executive talks about OHS Leadership”
On November 25 2009, NPR’s show Talk of the Nation conducted some discussions with truckers on their safety needs for the first part of the program. (Audio is available HERE) The emphasis was on the conduct of drivers in vehicles and trucks but there is some discussion on the VORAD forward radar system applied to … Continue reading “Truck safety talkback”