Evidence on the need for safe job design

One reader has provided an example of recent research that supports the previous SafetyAtWorkBlog article on the importance of quality and safety in job creation. In the March 2011 online edition of the Occupational & Environmental Medicine journal, Australian researchers have analysed data concerning “the psychosocial quality of work”.  According to an accompanying media release … Continue reading “Evidence on the need for safe job design”

Raising awareness about stress instead of controlling it

In March 2011, in response to one of the several Stress Awareness Days, HRLeader magazine ran an edited version of a Personnel Today article called “5 steps to tackle employee stress”.  The Personnel Today had “6 steps”, so are Australian readers being ripped off? Personnel Today included a step called “Refer the Health and Safety … Continue reading “Raising awareness about stress instead of controlling it”

Grief guidance got right

A reader has pointed out an excellent guidance on managing situations after the sudden loss of a work colleague or family member, following on from a recent SafetyAtWorkBlog article. In 2004 Skylight and New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Commission published “Death Without Warning – After an Accidental Death”.  This book (only available for purchase) is an … Continue reading “Grief guidance got right”

Rolling the sleeves up – a good OHS technique.

My father has a smallish block up in the bush, north-east Victoria in the Ovens Valley.  He can’t live there safely anymore, but since he built the place himself and with all the family history it has, it’s a place that has to be retained, and protected from bushfire as much as we reasonably can … Continue reading “Rolling the sleeves up – a good OHS technique.”

You can lead a stressed horse to water……

England’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) released results of a survey of union representatives on 24 February 2011 that shows that workplace stress is “now by far the most common health and safety problem at work.” Even taking into consideration the inherent bias of such union surveys of reps, the figures are significant.  The 24 February 2011 media release states: … Continue reading “You can lead a stressed horse to water……”

The Asphyxiation of OHS

Good OHS thinking and practice are being slowly asphyxiated.  By far most suggestions by workers, unions or good consultants for Health & Safety improvements are ‘choked’ by management naysayers and bureaucrats more in touch with their current minister’s moods than workplace reality.  Not choked immediately or blatantly.   In fact, that person may be patted on … Continue reading “The Asphyxiation of OHS”

Is night shift reasonable practicable?

Tony Carter, has provided some additional information about occupational fatigue after reading the fatigue article on this blog earlier today. Carter was one of three authors of a 2007 article in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene entitled “Epidemiological Diagnosis of Occupational Fatigue in a Fly-In–Fly-Out Operation of the Mineral Industry” (abstract only available online).   The abstract says that: “A … Continue reading “Is night shift reasonable practicable?”