In April 2002, I interviewed Lawrence Lorber of US law firm Proskauer Rose on workplace bullying. It was at the height of the Enron collapse and corporate behaviour towards staff was gaining a lot of attention. Over the last fortnight I have been researching some of the management books and concepts concerning leadership, emotional intelligence, … Continue reading “Workplace bullying – interview with Lawrence Lorber (2002)”
Part 2 of Risk & Reason book review from SafetyAtWork magazine 2003 Sunstein closes the chapter “Thinking About Risks” with a short reference to September 11 2001 with which he says that “acts of terrorism show an acute appreciation of the psychological phenomena..” Throughout the book, there are snippets that can be related to safety … Continue reading “Cass Sunstein, Risk, Cost-Benefit and OHS – Part 2”
For several weeks News Limited papers have reporting weird goings on around a fish hatchery in Queensland. In a small area of Cooloothin Creek people living on properties neighbouring the Sunland Fish Hatchery have been noticing an increase in cancers. The latest victim is a hatchery foreman who has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. The issue … Continue reading “Possible cancer cluster at fish hatchery”
The defence forces operate with a different understanding of risk and safety. In the past there are many instances where soldiers lives have purposely been sacrificed for the greater good. This has been an integral part of many “heroic” battles. The Australian federal OHS authority, Comcare, is at the forefront of a clash between occupational … Continue reading ““Illegal” asbestos use in the Australian Navy”
Every year newspapers and organisations undertake a “year in review”. OHS regulators are no different. As more statistics become available of the next few weeks, SafetyAtWorkBlog will provide the latest OHS statistics for 2008. The most recent are below. Western Australia According to a media release by WorkSafe WA: “In 2005/06, WA recorded 12 traumatic … Continue reading “Australian 2008 workplace statistics”
Earlier this year, SafetyAtWorkBlog reported on the attack on a nurse in the Torres Strait Islands north of Australia, the investigation of the issue by Queensland Health and the mechanisms introduced to get the working conditions and accommodation up to a safe level. In this case there was a clear link between occupational health and … Continue reading “Management failures and a rape of a five-month-old baby”
The latest official, but not comprehensive, data for Australian workplace fatalities has been released. The Australian Safety & Competition Council has published the Notified Fatalities Statistical Report July 2007 to June 2008. Chairman Bill Scales AO said that this report provides analysis of notified fatalities across Australia for the full financial year. “There were 16 fewer … Continue reading “Latest Australia workplace fatalities data”