David Cameron, the leader of England’s Conservative Party, has spoken about the health and safety culture that he says is restricting personal and business options in England. In the full speech, Cameron clearly outlines an ideological agenda but it is a mistake to see this as an attack on the OHS regulator. Below is an … Continue reading “Tory leader calls for a “forensic examination” of health and safety culture”
In late November 2009, the Victorian State Emergency Services (SES) was convicted of OHS breaches over the death of one of its volunteers and was fined $A75,000. The SES has chosen to allocate $A150,000 to a review of its safety management after strong criticism from the Mildura Magistrate, Peter Couzens. In answer to the title of this … Continue reading “How much does poor safety management cost?”
It is impossible to review the new international risk management standard as such a standard is a curious beast. The ISO31000 Risk Management Standard sets down the principles that can apply in a range of industries including, from SafetyAtWorkBlog’s perspective, occupational health and safety. Australia recently released a draft of a model OHS Act that the government wants to use as a template for uniform OHS laws. That … Continue reading “The relevance of the international Risk Management Standard”
Some of the best OHS writing comes from the personal. In a couple of days time a new book will go on sale that illustrates big issues from a niche context and brings to the research a degree of truth from the personal experiences of the author. Pia Markkanen has written “Shoes, glues and homework … Continue reading “Shoemaking in South East Asia – book review”
During Asbestos Awareness Week 2009 in Melbourne Australia the trade union movement pledged to begin a national strategy to control and remove asbestos from Australia. This would have been a very tall ask any time in the last two decades but Asbestos needs to compete now with Climate Change for the attention of the media, … Continue reading “Asbestos Awareness Week calls for action”
OHS professionals are very keen on advocating a change in workplace culture as a base requirement for safety improvements. They also regularly quote the need for “top-down” leadership (however that is defined) to generate the cultural change. SafetyAtWorkBlog has already may some comments about leadership today but an interesting article has been brought to our attention that, although … Continue reading “Understanding the new world of the CEO”
Nanotechnology research papers are often very technical and highly unlikely to discuss the occupational health and safety impacts of the technology’s use. The papers often rely on someone else to explain the relevance of the research. But on 24 November 2009, Dr Fern Wickson of the University of Bergen spoke in Brisbane about nanotechnology challenges and released … Continue reading “New Australian discussion paper on nanotechnology”