The head of the UK’s Health & Safety Executive, Judith Hackitt has released part of a letter that she sent to Lord Young of Graffham on the announcement of his OHS review. According to Hackitt’s media statement she advised “The terms of reference of your review extend beyond HSE’s remit, which is concerned with addressing … Continue reading “HSE and Lord Young test the waters of reform”
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”
Can a country be run in a similar way to running a business? Does corporate leadership equate to political leadership? It would be possible to find examples in support of both these questions and as much evidence to counter them but the contextual difference is important to note when considering leadership in general. A crucial difference in the two sectors is … Continue reading “Does corporate leadership equate to political leadership?”
On 1 June 2010, the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) informed its 3,000 members that Professor Andrew Hopkins has been “nominated for a spot on the US commission’s inquiry into the disaster’s causes”. Andrew Hopkins has advised SafetyAtWorkBlog that the nomination is not true and that the article is inaccurate. His name was included in … Continue reading “Inaccurate claims made of BP spill inquiry membership”
A new survey on CEO attitudes to safety has been released by Peter Wagner & Associates entitled “Safety – A Wicked Problem, Leading CEOs discuss their views on OHS transformation“. There is some interesting information in report but Wagner is being generous in the report’s title. There are some CEOs who seem knowledgeable on safety management who … Continue reading “A wicked OHS problem in more ways than one”
On 7 May 2010 Judge Lacava of the County Court of Victoria increased the $A25,000 fine applied to A Bending Company to $A75,000. WorkSafe’s Acting Director for Health and Safety, Stan Krpan, said in a media release: “The fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] found the original penalty inadequate, and the increase in … Continue reading “What is the OHS “public interest”?”
The debacle of the Australian Government’s insulation job creation scheme faded when the scheme was cancelled suddenly by the Government earlier in 2010. Attention was always going to return at various stages as investigations into the deaths of young insulation installers begin but Parliament resumed earlier and the Opposition attacked. The attack has led to … Continue reading “The politics of the insulation debacle become clearer”