Occupational health and safety (OHS) has had an uneasy ride in political debates in Australia, often because there is a disturbing morality in laws that dictate an employer has responsibility for the safety and health of their workers, even if legal wriggle room is allowed. There is no written history of OHS in Australia except …
Insecure work creates stress for workers and their families yet companies continue to choose insecure work contracts for this type of work. They must take some responsibility for the physical and mental health consequences.
The food delivery gig workers are the primary focus of the gig work and safety debates in Australia. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) is making good progress with one of the gig companies, DoorDash, on wages, conditions and OHS, but this progress remains limited. The focus on food delivery is also a comfortable category for … Continue reading “WorkSafe starts work on sex work safety”
Recently accusations of bullying have been made by members of Opera Australia. The details are reported in Limelight, but the newspaper article by Nathaneal Cooper is more illustrative of the general workplace mental health challenges of those in the performing arts. Performers are one of the most visible and fragile sectors of insecure and precarious …
A new Human Resources (HR) article shows some promise in addressing the institutional factors that lead to poor mental health in workers. The website for Human Resources Director asks, “Should HR be concerned about employee economic insecurity?” I would ask, “how can it not be?” given that Australian research over the last twenty years and …
Last week the Australian Financial Review (AFR) caused a bit of a political stink by reporting that: “….Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the share of casual employment was 22.8 per cent in February – 1.3 percentage points lower than in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit the economy.The casualisation rate is 4.8 percentage …
The Victorian Government is trialling the provision of five days of sick, and carers’ leave for casual workers. This was announced jointly by the Premier Daniel Andrews and the Minister for Workplace Safety, Ingrid Stitt on the Labour Day public holiday, indicating that this is a big reform and one directly related to occupational health …
