A recent occupational health and safety (OHS) prosecution in New Zealand illustrates many issues and attitudes to safety held by small business operators around the world. Stumpmaster was prosecuted after a bystander was injured and then hospitalised when the tree it was felling hit her. (WorkSafeNZ has issued a media release in the wake of …
The Western Australian Government is getting serious about making its occupational health and safety regime consistent with the strategies and operations of the other Australian States. On 27 August 2017, Premier Mark McGowan stated, in a media release, that “Penalties for workplace safety offences haven’t changed for 13 years. The substantial increases reflect the seriousness …
The Australian Human Rights Commission has released a report into the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in Australia’s university campuses. It has revealed some shocking statistics and brings Australian universities into the global phenomenon of reassessing university obligations for the modern world. Australia’s occupational health and safety laws and obligations could be used …
Following a recent article about Enforceable Undertakings, several readers have asked for more information about the occupational health and safety (OHS) breaches that cause WorkSafe New Zealand to commence prosecution actions. The investigation report provides some useful discussion on safety management failures and Board of Trustee obligations....
Barry Naismith‘s third report into the operations and performance of WorkSafe Victoria was released on July 22, 2014. Naismith produces these reports through a combination of publicly available information in the press, a dive into the resources of the WorkSafe Library (visit before it moves to Geelong) and requests to WorkSafe. This level of analysis … Continue reading “Independent analysis of WorkSafe Victoria”
Workers in scissor lifts often step on railings or overreach placing themselves at risk of falling. These actions are contrary to the use of plant as usually recommended by manufacturers and to the usual requirements in an occupational health and safety (OHS) management plan for working in the rail environment. The actions in these photographs …
I have recently finished some years of full-time work as a safety adviser on a range of construction projects in Australia and below is a list of some of what I have learnt (in no particular order). Ask questions People may initially think you are an idiot but, if you are genuinely interested, they will …