Col Finnie has provided the following article in response to OHS compliance checklists: It’s gotta be time to bite-the-bullet. The wish-fulfilment approach – that people will apply some sort of system to how they look after safety because that’s the only sensible way to do it – well, that’s not working, particularly it seems, in the … Continue reading “Regulating The Great Leap Forward (Into The Bleeding Obvious)”
I return to the observation Ken made in his article, the obs about the most successful safety places where “…safety is driven at the shop floor level and led by a committed team of senior executives who can be relied upon to show it by their actions and not just words.” Of course, at first … Continue reading “The How, How likely and How much of workplace safety”
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.”
Kevin Jones’s piece on the HSE dilemma with odd reporting of OH&S issues (silly stuff like the popular media reporting HSE banning toothpicks) got me thinkin’ about how silly attitudes about OH&S requirements come about. And maybe there is something to learn from this when thinking about the OH&S body of knowledge and accreditation system. … Continue reading “Silly safety memes, knowledge dumps, body of knowledge and accreditation.”
[Ed: There has been a terrific response to Col Finie’s post on training and OHS qualifications both on and off the SafetyAtWorkBlog. Col provides a further article below] Brett’s point is critical for mine. [“I reiterate my point that practical experience is the key, because if you do not use that “core body of knowledge” … Continue reading “Avoiding the OHS training dead-end”
The Safety Institute of Australia has been investigating the development of a “core body of knowledge” for OHS in Australia for some years. Recently the institute released a discussion paper on the proposed accreditation idea for OH&S professionals. There is some similarity to moves in other countries such as the UK and to the situation in Canada. Regular contributor Col … Continue reading “What academic qualifications are needed to be a safety professional?”
A recent download of a “free” guide from the Victorian Building Commission on retrofitting a home for bushfire protection raised the ongoing nonsense of Australian Standards costs. Sure enough, this free guide is only notionally so; if you don’t hand over $100 then the guide has limited use. The guide I got, “A guide to … Continue reading “Major rethink on Australian Standards needed”