On May 1 2020, Australia’s Employment Minister, Michaelia Cash, spoke on breakfast television to discuss what the government considers to be a “COVID safe workplace”. Her advice to Australian employers was nothing more than understand your business, assess your risks and apply the controls, as if employers did not already know!? To David Koch on …
This year’s International Workers Memorial Day/World Day for Safety and Health at Work is over. Many of the memorial events were conducted online and many gave healthcare workers prominence, especially in the United Kingdom. SafetyAtWorkBlog watched the online service conducted by the Victorian Trades Hall. Many worker memorials are little more than a reiteration of …
Lisa Stevens is an Australian OHS professional who specialises in laboratory and chemical safety through her own company. Lisa is the latest in this series of profiles intended to humanise those who are interested, or active, in workplace health and safety How did I get into Health and Safety? My first taste of health and … Continue reading “OHS and Lisa Stevens”
The COVID19, business disruption surveys keep coming. This time from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). On 25 April 2020 released its Business Conditions Survey Report 2020. which was “… undertaken between 30 March and 17 April, and involved 1,497 businesses across all states and territories. This overlaps the April 9 survey by …
Last week the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) released some research into workers and COVID19. It is not peer-reviewed and there will certainly be much more research into the disruption and personal and occupational responses to the coronavirus disruption over the next few months. The survey results do not specifically analyse occupational health and …
The theme for most commemorations on April 28 is the COVID19 pandemic. This is understandable as the pandemic has disrupted lives and economies globally and many people have died. Perhaps the most tragic of these deaths are those of medical and healthcare staff who have contracted the infection through their work. The largest public outrage …
This week Dr Rebecca Michalak wrote that penalties for breaches of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws need to be personal for people to understand the potentially fatal consequences at the work site or decisions that are made in the comfort of the boardroom. In this sentiment she echoes the aims of many who have …