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Harmonisation of Australia’s workers’ compensation system begins

SafetyAtWorkBlog has learnt that the national harmonisation process for workers’ compensation has formally begun with one of the first meetings being scheduled in Melbourne at the end of March 2010 and organised by Safe Work Australia.  The two-day meeting is invitation only and invitations have been sent to relevant stakeholders – insurers, rehabilitation, providers, unions…… The meeting is almost an introduction to … Continue reading “Harmonisation of Australia’s workers’ compensation system begins”

Workplace bullying and restorative justice – how to help the families left behind

A feature article on workplace bullying in The Age newspaper on 10 March 2010 has the additional or secondary benefit of again raising the relevance of “restorative justice” to the issue of occupational safety and health. The main element of the article is the McGregor family who had two children commit suicide over related issues.  The son, Stuart … Continue reading “Workplace bullying and restorative justice – how to help the families left behind”

Dipping into workplace violence

Jeff Sparrow recently gained considerable media attention with his book that reflected on violence in society.  Yossi Berger once described occupational health and safety as a “kind of violence” in his book of that title.  There is a lot of research  into occupational violence, much of it from the United States which, to some extent, has an unrepresentative view of … Continue reading “Dipping into workplace violence”

Finger amputation and arc flash burns

SafeWorkSA has issued media releases on 20 January 2010 concerning two recent decisions from the Industrial Relations Court.  The first of these will a situation of bypassing a machine guard that is all too familiar to OHS professionals – “a pair of vice grips had been attached to the finger guard at the front of the press, restricting its full range … Continue reading “Finger amputation and arc flash burns”

Update on New Zealand cool store explosion

On 15 December 2009, a New Zealand Court penalised two companies and a director with fines totalling over $NZ390,000 over an explosion in a coolstore that result in the death of one firefighter and injuries to others.  In the comments section of a previous blog article the following questions were put to the New Zealand … Continue reading “Update on New Zealand cool store explosion”

Australian OHS statistics just released

Safe Work Australia has released a couple more of its annual statistical reports about workplace injuries and fatalities. The report that covers 2006/07 ( Work-Related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2006-07) included this information in the Summary of Findings “[In 2006–07]…a total of 453 work-related traumatic injury fatalities in Australia during 2006–07.   In 2006–07, just … Continue reading “Australian OHS statistics just released”

How much does poor safety management cost?

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?”