Many of the employees in the health sector in Australia have recently been negotiating new employment conditions. It is rare for the workplace hazards of fatigue and impairment to be given such prominence in industrial relations negotiations. A major cause of fatigue is the lack of adequate resources for relieving staff. This issue has been … Continue reading “Fatigue, impairment and industrial relations”
WorkSafe contacted me today concerning some issues raised in a previous post concerning their first aid information. Some small tweaks have been made to that post but one point required elaboration. There is some dispute over whether low risk micro businesses require a trained first aider. Below is my position. FIRST AID NEEDS ASSESSMENT … Continue reading “Trained first aiders in “low risk” microbusinesses”
Some time ago WorkSafe Victoria issued Compliance Codes on a number of workplace safety issues. One was concerning First Aid. The Compliance Codes were intended to replace Codes of Practice which had been around for decades. The previous major change to workplace first aid was in 1995 when the First Aid Code of Practice was … Continue reading “Flawed first aid information”
Many OHS professionals and business gurus state that safety leadership must come from the top of the corporate tree. BHP Billiton received some rare positive press on 16 June 2009 concerning its OHS policies. According to Mark Hawthorne, BHP CEO Marius Kloppers has revealed he is battling “pig flu”, in his words. This seems to … Continue reading “BHP, swine flu and leave entitlements”
Craig Donaldson interviewed Joydeep Hor, managing partner of Australian law firm Harmers on employment issues related to the swine flu outbreak. Joydeep rightly points out that HR and OHS processes should not differentiate between swine flu and other workplace illnesses. Hor briefly discusses the employers duty of care and how to question one’s traditional approaches to … Continue reading “Presenteeism and swine flu”
According to the Communiqué of the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council on 18 May 2009, the following issues should be considered when drafting the new OHS legislation “Application of the primary duty of care to any person conducting a business or undertaking The panel recommends that the primary duty of care should be owed by any … Continue reading “The OHS recommendations the Australian Government rejected”
The Business Council of Australia is the latest employer group to actively lobby Australian industrial relations ministers over harmonised OHS laws on the eve of the crucial Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC) meeting. BCA’s CEO Kate Lahey is reported in today’s Age newspaper as saying that the rejection of OHS law reform would say to … Continue reading “More last minute lobbying but with compromise”