OHS and Marilyn Hubner

Dr Marilyn Hubner has been a steady presence in Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) field. I had the pleasure of spending some time with, and interviewing, her at the World OHS Congress in Singapore a few years ago. Her training work keeps her connected with workers and business owners away from workplace, usually, and allows for a good level of perception on the reality of OHS.

Marilyn says:

Just want to say first up, that humanising OHS is interesting.  Some people think safety is all about humanising, but many others often find themselves thinking numbers and compliance a bit too much.   I’m not your typical safety person.  Most of my work is training related.  Either writing programs, delivering training or evaluating and improving training programs.  Many will see this as outside the safety profession, but I tend to think of myself and my services as a contractor to the profession as well as to organisations.  

How did you get into Health & Safety?

I got into safety in a very common way, through the HSR way.  While working as an educator I was put forward to be the HSR, after the first day of the 5 day training, I knew that this was the way that I could (as everyone wants) ‘save the world’.  After the course I enrolled in the Cert IV, then the Diploma of OHS and then looked for work.  With my defence force and adult education background, safety training and consulting came naturally.

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“a COVID safe workplace” – Mark 2

Less than 12 hours after not mentioning Safe Work Australia’s COVID19 occupational health and safety (OHS) guidance, the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Michaelia Cash, issues a media release, in conjunction with the Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, saying that

“The Safe Work Australia (SWA) website has been transformed into a centralised information hub, which can be easily searched using a handy content filter to find work health and safety guidance relevant to 23 specific industries.”

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“a COVID safe workplace”

The closest photo I could find related to “teaching your Grandmother to suck eggs“

On May 1 2020, Australia’s Employment Minister, Michaelia Cash, spoke on breakfast television to discuss what the government considers to be a “COVID safe workplace”. Her advice to Australian employers was nothing more than understand your business, assess your risks and apply the controls, as if employers did not already know!?

To David Koch on Channel 7’s Sunrise program, Minister Cash said:

“… businesses need to examine what industry am I in; what are the restrictions that are still going to be in place in my particular workplace; and, do I have that action plan, that set of best practice principles ready to go so when I’m given the green light I can open my doors and Australians can come back to me with confidence knowing I have a COVID safe workplace.”

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Quick OHS News – Danger Money, Red Tape and Toilets

Below is some interesting occupational health and safety (OHS) issues that have appeared over the last week that I don’t have the time to explore in the usual depth but are useful.

Danger Money appears

David Marin-Guzman reports that unions are asking for an extra

“$5 an hour to compensate [disability workers] for risks in assisting clients suspected of having coronavirus.”

The reporter’s Twitter account justifiably describes this as “danger money“, an issue forecast as likely by this blog recently. That such an offer is made by the Health Services and United Workers Unions is disappointing but unions can do little else as the employers have the primary OHS responsibilities. What such action also does though is let the employers off lightly from their OHS duties to continuously improve workplace health and safety. The $5 danger money may be cheaper than implementing other risk control options but OHS laws have a process for this type of decision making that has Cost as the last option to be considered. Allowances do not reduce worker safety risks and they can undermine future OHS initiatives.

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OHS and Ciaran McAleenan

Running the Denis Rankin Round (24 hour challenge – covering 90km and 6500m in ascent)

Dr Ciaran McAleenan CEng MICE is the Chair of Institution of Civil Engineers Expert H&S Panel and Lecturer at Ulster University. Ciaran and I have been reading each other for some time and watching many of the same occupational health and safety (OHS) changes. He admitted that some of the questions were challenging, the simplest of questions often are, especially if you have to write down your thoughts.

This series of articles aims to humanise some of the people working in and for OHS. Often we hear or read or, if we are lucky, meet OHS people but rarely get to chat or ask more personal questions. Below are Ciaran’s illuminating answers

How did you get into Health & Safety?

I guess it’s been in my blood from a young age. At 15 I was a qualified life guard and instructor. And since early 20s I have been in civil engineering where I always held that anything I designed should not cause harm. Although initially I probably never thought of things as health and safety. It all just seemed like something that was normal and needed. Later on (maybe early to mid-90s) it became obvious to me that it wasn’t natural and normal for everyone and my inner-educator was released. Since then I have been developing new OHS strategies writing, publishing and teaching. It’s a serious subject but it should also be fun, since the upside to good OHS is enhanced family life and good physical and mental health.

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Great loss, but no vision and limited interest

This year’s International Workers Memorial Day/World Day for Safety and Health at Work is over. Many of the memorial events were conducted online and many gave healthcare workers prominence, especially in the United Kingdom. SafetyAtWorkBlog watched the online service conducted by the Victorian Trades Hall.

Many worker memorials are little more than a reiteration of the importance of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. If the ceremonies are conducted by trade unions, as most are, they are usually advocating for the role of Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs). This year’s Victorian ceremony was typical. However, there were some curiosities and such ceremonies can, and should, be more than just a commemoration.

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OHS and Lisa Stevens

Lisa Stevens is an Australian OHS professional who specialises in laboratory and chemical safety through her own company.

Lisa is the latest in this series of profiles intended to humanise those who are interested, or active, in workplace health and safety

How did I get into Health and Safety?

My first taste of health and safety was working in the Dept of Labour and Industry (SA) many years ago as a casual clerk. Five years later I was managing the medical record department for a large psychiatric hospital, when I  was asked to provide training for nurses who were undertaking return to work programs in the department. I wanted to know more about developing return to work programs , and the only available was a subject within the Diploma of OHS (and I am talking about the pre-competency based training era!!)

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