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Principal Contractor duties clarified in the High Court of Australia

Managing contract labour is almost always a pain.  The extension of OHS obligations through the “supply chain” has not helped although it was intended to. Companies have been expected to treat contractors as employees for the sake of OHS obligations.  This was intended to generate a cultural change where a certain safety standard was extended … Continue reading “Principal Contractor duties clarified in the High Court of Australia”

Lawyers identify contentious OHS law elements

The Safety Conference scheduled for Sydney at the end of October 2009 has finally got an OHS issue that is contentious and is also a work in progress.  The unions are starting to make noise on the OHS laws.  The employer groups are manoeuvring cautiously.  The safety professionals are largely silent (again) but the lawyers … Continue reading “Lawyers identify contentious OHS law elements”

National scaffolding campaign

This week a national scaffolding safety campaign was launched in Australia.  There are several sources for new and useful information about the campaign, two are below. Mike Hammond of law firm, Deacons, has written a backgrounder on the need for the campaign and how to prepare for the compliance visits.  Hammond lists the key messages … Continue reading “National scaffolding campaign”

Swine Flu and business continuity – video

On the evening of 2 June 2009, the ABC TV show “Lateline Business” ran a short item on the business continuity issues associated with Australia’s swine flu outbreak.  Not much that was said was new but it proposed an interesting scenario for those people who manage aged care facilities where a potentially virulent illness could harm … Continue reading “Swine Flu and business continuity – video”

Legal opinion on Australia’s model OHS laws

The comments on the Australian Government’s response to the report into Australia’s model OHS laws have been pretty muted.  There were the obligatory compliments from those in favour and the obligatory criticisms from those against but both types of response were in the immediate aftermath of the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council meeting in mid-May 2009. … Continue reading “Legal opinion on Australia’s model OHS laws”

Presenteeism and swine flu

Craig Donaldson interviewed Joydeep Hor, managing partner of Australian law firm Harmers on employment issues related to the swine flu outbreak.  Joydeep rightly points out that HR and OHS processes should not differentiate between swine flu and other workplace illnesses.  Hor briefly discusses the employers duty of care and how to question one’s traditional approaches to … Continue reading “Presenteeism and swine flu”

Migrant worker safety

Recently one of the Australian boutique labour law firms ran a seminar on employment issues related to migrant workers.  Australia has a history of using workers from the Pacific Islands, principally, in agriculture.  Chinese have been working in Australia since the goldfields of the 1800s.  New Zealanders are so frequent that the countries almost share … Continue reading “Migrant worker safety”