On 7 May 2010 Judge Lacava of the County Court of Victoria increased the $A25,000 fine applied to A Bending Company to $A75,000. WorkSafe’s Acting Director for Health and Safety, Stan Krpan, said in a media release: “The fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] found the original penalty inadequate, and the increase in … Continue reading “What is the OHS “public interest”?”
A short time after a traumatic death of a family member will cause the family to feel they are in a mental spin. Not only are the usual funeral arrangements required but there can seem to be involvement in a personal loss from a mess of government departments and legal bodies. It is not expected that all … Continue reading “Guidance on the impacts of a workplace death”
A 19 May 2010 SafetyAtWorkBlog article commented on a new eye safety campaign by the Optometrists Association Australia. The eye safety brochure included several statistical references upon which clarification was sought. Shirley Loh, OAA’s National Professional Services Manager has provided references, and we thank her for her efforts. A couple of quotes in question were: … Continue reading “Eye injury campaign evidence clarified”
Guest contributor Jim Ward writes: Interested observers of past OHS failures would do well to pay close attention to the insights of former BP employee Ross Macfarlane in the SafetyAtWorkBlog – A personal insight into BP and the corporate approach to safety. His erudite observations of some of the underlying issues surrounding BP’s succession of … Continue reading “Leadership starts with the truth”
In 2008, a New South Wales Parliamentary Committee reported to the Government on problems with that State’s Ambulance Services. The problems included bullying, harassment and a dysfunctional management. A review into the Ambulance Services progress on the recommendations two years later has found : “…the general feedback received from ambulance officers is that despite the new initiatives, little has changed, and significant management and … Continue reading “The struggle to achieve cultural change on OHS”
In 2003, emergency responders attended a major rail incident at Waterfall in New South Wales, in which multiple passengers were injured and seven died. According to a 14 April 2010 article in The Australian (page 7, not yet(?) available online): “The officers [David Wicks and Philip Sheehan] were among the first at the scene of the … Continue reading “Compensation denied because police officers only saw the aftermath of fatal incident”
On 25 March 2010, the International Labour Organization released an updated list of occupational diseases. On the ILO website, it is stated that “Mental and behavioural disorders have for the first time, been specifically included in the ILO list.” All occupational diseases, including psychosocial hazards, had to satisfy the following criteria in order to be … Continue reading “Psychosocial hazards are now, formally, occupational diseases”