Improvement notice issued after psychological trauma notification

Psychological injuries that happen at work or are caused by work may need to be notified to occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators in some Australian jurisdictions. Recently, an organisation associated with prominent Australian businessman Andrew Forrest underwent the notification experience and received an improvement notice....

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Why does the Human Resources profession struggle with preventing psychological and psychosocial harm?

I am not immune to the worries and potential of using Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in my occupational health and safety (OHS) work and writings. As with millions of others, my relationship is a work in progress. I have long used the transcription software Otter.ai to transcribe short interviews. It remains less accurate than human …

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”take safety seriously”

Tasmanian politicians recently discussed Industrial Manslaughter laws in Parliament. As with similar debates in other jurisdictions, occupational health and safety (OHS) appears to justify these amendments, but the OHS principle of preventing harm is rarely discussed. Deterrence? Yes, but Prevention? Not really....

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To understand Safety, one must understand Work

To understand occupational health and safety (OHS), you must understand the broader topic of work. Work is not necessarily more complex than OHS, but there are more opportunities to be distracted. Earlier this year, Andrea Komlosy‘s excellent analysis of work—”Work—The last 1,000 years“—was published in English for the first time. The book hardly discusses OHS, …

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We must understand the social pressures on employer safety decisions

There is a cost-of-living crisis in large parts of the world, there is a climate emergency, there are wars and political instability and insecurity everywhere. Why is occupational health and safety (OHS) still considered important? Well, it isn’t really when compared to these global and existential crises, but that is the microcosm in which we …

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Should safety regulators consider a refocus in their approach?

With the continued expansion of occupational health and safety (OHS) legislative frameworks, have we gone a step too far to enable employers, particularly small- to medium-enterprises (SMEs), to operationally achieve and maintain compliance?  With the recent introduction of psychological health requirements across Australia, this question has never been more important....

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A Neverending Story – Supply chain safety dispute

Several weeks ago, Scott’s Refrigerated Logistics, a prominent Australia trucking company, entered receivership. It seems the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), as part of a long campaign, chose to take another potshot at one of Australia’s few supermarkets, Aldi, accusing it of “pressuring supply chains” when the average profit margin in this sector has been described …

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