Lawyers speaking at occupational health and safety conferences can be a bit hit-and-miss. Some are interested in minute complexities of law. Others are not comfortable talking about legal technicalities with non-lawyers. The presentation also depends on what the conference delegates want, and this can differ from day to day. But sometimes, a conference hears from …
Effective consultation is a core element of building a functional safety management system in any workplace. This involves talking and listening. Various occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators have pushed this point in the past usually with static images of mouths and ears but WorkSafe New Zealand has released a series of videos in support …
The period for public comment on Australia’s latest draft of its workplace bullying code has completed. The available submissions are online. The submissions from several employer and industry associations reveal an ideological stance on workplace bullying that should generate great concern by OHS professionals and regulators as they impede change by missing the real purpose … Continue reading “Workplace bullying submissions show industry misses the whole point”
In Australia, Parliamentary inquiries are usually required to provide the Parliament with a copy of their findings. In the last week of November 2012, the Chair of the Australia’s Parliamentary Inquiry into Workplace Bullying, Amanda Rishworth, presented its report which included a dissenting report from the Conservative (Liberal Party) committee members. On 28 November both … Continue reading “Political ideologies on show over workplace bullying”
CCH Australia has a long history as a prominent publisher on occupational health and safety issues but its latest book is a “curate’s egg”. Australian law firm, Freehills, has always been very involved with CCH’s “Master occupational, or work, health and safety guides but the 2012 edition of the Australian Master Work Health and Safety … Continue reading “CCH and Freehills produce a curate’s egg of an OHS book”
Brodies’ Law concerning workplace bullying is set to gain more media attention today as the Victorian Attorney-General, Robert Clark, launches a new anti-bullying campaign. The campaign has been pushed for by the parents of Brodie Panlock, Damien and Rae, and was whispered about at recent public hearings into workplace bullying. However, the media campaign gained … Continue reading “New anti-bullying campaign launched”
On 12 July 2012, SafetyAtWorkBlog described Moira Rayner as the “stand out speaker at the public hearing into workplace bullying conducted in Melbourne Australia. She was always on topic and spoke of her own experience of being accused of bullying. The Hansard record of that hearing is now available online and deserves some analysis to illustrate Rayner’s points but to also … Continue reading “Bullying Hansard provides hope, despair and extraordinary claims”