Funding granted to UnionsACT for research

Pages 13-14 of the Australian Capital Territory’s Hansard for December 14 2016 contained a curious discussion on work health and safety (WHS) funding.

The discussion was primarily looking for details on government funding of trade union WHS services. Rachel Stephen-Smith of the ruling Labor Party and responsible for workplace safety stated that part of the financial grant given to UnionsACT is for “undertaking research into work health safety”.  Alistair Coe, Liberal leader of the opposition sniffed a political opportunity and asked:

“…has any of the research which has been undertaken by UnionsACT actually been published?”

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Inconsistent quad bike safety advice in WA

agricultural_health_safety_checklist_01-pdf_extract_page_1On 18 January 2017, WorkSafeWA released an agricultural safety checklist which includes some hazards associated with quad bike operations. West Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) regulator stresses the checklist only lists common hazards and refers to a handbook.  The only agricultural handbook available on its website is from 2014 and the quad bike safety information seems outdated or, at least, inconsistent with the advice from South Australia and elsewhere. Continue reading “Inconsistent quad bike safety advice in WA”

Latest quad bike safety advice is more measured

quad-bikes-children-pdf_extract_page_1SafeWorkSA has released a series of single page safety advices on a range of occupational health and safety (OHS) topics including the use of quad bikes in agricultural workplaces.  The information included and the tone used indicates that the debate over quad bike safety may be settling.

The advice is clear and concise with some new safety perspectives but there are a couple of odd elements. The advice does say that the suitability of a quad bike should be assessed prior to purchasing but doesn’t suggest alternatives.  These options should be expanded elsewhere on SafeWorkSA’s website or farming publications. Continue reading “Latest quad bike safety advice is more measured”

Dummies can equal clarity

ohs-dummies-coverIt took a long time but Wiley has published a Dummies guide on Health and Safety At Work. The lack of an occupational health and safety (OHS) book in this series has always been a mystery particularly when the Dummies” market seems to be, primarily, small- to medium-sized businesses.  This edition is written for the UK market but the vast majority of the book is applicable to any jurisdiction that is based on the original UK OHS laws. But is it any good?

SafetyAtWorkBlog dipped into several chapters of the book to see if it was on the right path.

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The fashion of safety culture

sia-cover001In 2016, Professor Andrew Hopkins urged occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals to abandon safety culture. In the December 2016 edition of OHS Professional magazine ($), he writes further about this position.

Several of Hopkins’ statements make the reader stop, sit up and reflect.  He writes

“What people do is something company leadership can indeed control, while what people think is neither here nor there“(page 28 – emphasis added).

POW!, there goes a lot of the safety training that is provided.

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Two old SafetyAtWork podcasts remain relevant

Over the Christmas break I was cleaning out some files and found some old SafetyAtWork podcast files that used to be on iTunes around a decade ago.  The information and perspectives remain important and to preserve the files I have uploaded them to SoundCloud.

One is an interview with Professor Michael Quinlan shortly after the Beaconsfield mine inquiry.  The other is a presentation to the Central Safety Group by freelance journalist Gideon Haigh about the corporate approach to asbestos and compensation off the back of the publication of his Asbestos House book.

More will be posted over the next few weeks.

Kevin Jones

Safety Culture from the accounting perspective

Occupational health and safety (OHS) spends a lot of time discussing safety culture.  The same names keeping cropping up in the discussion illustrating the insularity of the safety profession.  But other professional sectors are also interested in safety culture.

Recently this blog contained an article about the

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