SafetyAtWorkBlog has written elsewhere of how the global financial crisis has caused OHS related programs to be revised. The latest bulletin from Standards Australia indicates the impact of the financial pressures on its plans and the reduction in the value of their investments has come at a time of other worrisome changes. (In this article … Continue reading “The future for Standards Australia will be hard”
SafetyAtWorkBlog has had a tremendous response to the article concerning Working Hours and Political Scandal. Below are some of the issues raised in some of the correspondence I have received from readers and OHS colleagues. The Trade Union Congress Risk e-bulletin has a similar public service/mental health case which has been resolved through the Courts. … Continue reading “OHS and workload – follow-up”
David Michaels has been nominated by President Obama as the new Assistant Secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Department of Labor. (A brief profile of Michaels is available HERE.) A posting at a US Workers’ Compensation website links through to a discussion on the potential impacts of the Michaels’ appointment. There … Continue reading “Do health professionals make the best OHS leaders?”
The South Australian Industrial Court made three decisions in late July 2009 that are useful cases to look at in order to promote improved health and safety practices but also, in one particular case, to note the approval and endorsement of the judge in the post-incident actions of the employer. As the SafeWork SA media notice … Continue reading “Three OHS case studies”
There seems to be new institutes and academic schools popping up regularly over research into the issue of work/life balance. Recently one of the oldest and most prominent of the institutes, the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia, released new research data. The latest Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) was … Continue reading “New Work/Life Research”
The Australian media has widely reported that Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, exists on three-hours sleep per night. He doesn’t and Professor Drew Dawson, a prominent Australian sleep researcher, discusses the exaggeration of high-flying professionals in an article at Crikey.com on 21 July 2009. More research of Professor Drew Dawson, Director, Centre for Sleep Research, … Continue reading “The myth of the three-hour sleep”
Further to the recent blog article on New South Wales WorkCover statistics, SafetyAtWorkBlog has been provided with a copy of the official Comparative Performance Monitoring (CPM) report that was released in August 2008. These figures are used to measure performance against the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012. SafeWorkAustralia has told SafetyAtWorkBlog that the next edition is due … Continue reading “Aspirational targets are next to useless put politically expedient”