Search Results for: working from home

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Quad bike manufacturers walk out of safety working group

In early 2010, Australia’s Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) established a trans-Tasman working party to look at the safety issues of quad bikes, often called all-terrain vehicles.  The working group is in the final stages of its report and a major motorcycle industry representative has not liked the findings and has apparently withdrawn from the working group.  A report on … Continue reading “Quad bike manufacturers walk out of safety working group”

WorkSafe’s Homecoming Advertisements

‘Why is the most important reason for good workplace health and safety standards not at work at all?’ asks the Homecoming advertisement by implication.  Because the injured or killed worker will leave his/her family behind, or harm them if they are injured or killed.  S/he needs to think about them and the workplace H&S standard; … Continue reading “WorkSafe’s Homecoming Advertisements”

Employees’ OHS responsibility and working beyond the maximum hours

One of the most powerful motivators for behavioural change in workplaces is the legislative obligation on employees to not put themselves at risk of injury nor to act in such a way as to place others at risk. Reported in the Australian media on 31 March 2010, Fair Work Australia has ruled that employees in … Continue reading “Employees’ OHS responsibility and working beyond the maximum hours”

Home-based businesses need OHS consideration

SafetyAtWorkBlog is largely produced from a home-based business and the issues of safety, mental health, work/life balance are real issues in this business. In the development of OHS regulations, a “workplace” has been fairly generic.  For at least 50 years, our definition of “workplace” has reflected our individual experience of the places we have worked.  (Lately, in … Continue reading “Home-based businesses need OHS consideration”

Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions

In October 2009, Australian lawyer, Michael Tooma gained considerable media coverage by stating that under the model Work Health and Safety Act: “..if I call out a tradesperson to do some work at my home, my home is their workplace and I would be a person at their workplace.  As such, I would have a duty to … Continue reading “Another go at homeowners being exposed to workplace prosecutions”

Australia’s Go Home on Time Day

November 26 2009 was Go Home On Time Day in Australia.  The intention of this day, organised by The Australia Institute, was to highlight the difficulty many workers face in a achieving this seemingly simple task.  The Australia Institute’s expresses the aims this way: The typical full-time employee is working 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day, which equates to 33 … Continue reading “Australia’s Go Home on Time Day”

Working in heat – still contentious

Australians associate working in hot conditions as outside work although the occupational hazard of heat is just as relevant in bakeries and foundries.  OHS regulators and safety lobbyists often try to include too much in their heat-related strategies – heat stress, skin cancer, hydration, dust, and a range of other hazard combinations related to specific … Continue reading “Working in heat – still contentious”