The duty of care to “others”

In 2019 a man took his own life while being detained in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. At the time media reports said that the death was being referred to the appropriate authorities and the New South Wales Coroner. On March 10, 2021, Comcare charged: “The Department of Home Affairs and its healthcare provider (IHMS) …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Now there is too much mental health information, and it’s like toothpaste

Australia is experiencing a boom in occupational health and safety (OHS) information about work-related psychological harm, including sexual harassment at work. This level of information is long overdue, but a consequence of this “boom” is that employers can be very confused about which information to use and which source they should trust or even what …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Parliamentary culture must change

Australia is in the midst of a murky investigation into an alleged rape that occurred out-of-hours in an office of a Federal Minister in Australia’s Parliament House. The incident has raised discussions and debates about workplace culture, the reporting of crimes, the uniqueness (?) of the parliamentary workplace, the rights of women, the role of …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Wilde about Industrial Manslaughter

Many people are sick of the issue of Industrial Manslaughter because it has seemed to dominate the discussion of occupational health and safety (OHS) and taken the focus away from harm prevention reforms on silica, mental health and others. However, Industrial Manslaughter (IM) continues to be raised in Australian Parliaments. In December, Shadow Minister for …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Business nuggets from the Australian Financial Review

It is not possible to write as many occupational health and safety (OHS) articles as I would like to, and my newspaper clippings files are bulging by the time I get some time to tidy up. The Australian Financial Review (AFR) is an expensive business newspaper that often touches on OHS matters even though OHS …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

‘No Bystanders Rule’​ Bullshit

Guest Post by Dr Rebecca Michalak About couple of weeks ago, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) featured a piece on a law firm that had introduced a mandatory approach to reporting sexual harassment – referred to as a ‘no bystanders’ rule.  To be clear upfront, here is my disclaimer – I am not directly commenting … Continue reading “‘No Bystanders Rule’​ Bullshit”

Hospitality survey shows the size of the hurdle to reform

Hospo Voice, a trade union for Australian hospitality workers has released a report on a survey of more than 4000 workers between March and June 2020. #RebuildHospo: A Post-Covid Roadmap For Secure Jobs In Hospitality has all the limitations of other surveys done by members of an organisation rather than independent research but this report …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.