WorkSafe Victoria is very keen for the safety advice and management discipline to become professional. It is providing considerable technical and financial support to the Safety Institute of Australia and other members of the Health and Safety Professionals Alliance (HaSPA). The current status of HaSPA in Australia has been discussed in other SafetyAtWorkBlog articles. HaSPA … Continue reading “An Ombudsman for the safety profession”
Firstly there is an apology for having statistics dominate SafetyAtWorkBlog this week however everything became available all at once. An earlier article mentioned some recent OHS statistics that have been released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Below is the SafetyAtWorkBlog interpretation of the survey report. The survey was undertaken by an independent research … Continue reading “Australian survey on attitudes to OHS and laws”
The National Research Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Regulation at the Australian National University is one of the few Australian research centres who provide free access to their data. The number is growing but is still way behind institutions overseas. The latest research report they have released concerns management-based regulations as opposed to prescriptive … Continue reading “New OHS research on the limits of management based regulation”
Everyone knows that we are cleaner for the washing of our hands. The childhood fibs of our parents that potatoes will grow behind our ears if we don’t wash there regularly have been pretty much dismissed. There was little evidence for the benefits of washing behind our ears other than the authority and wisdom of … Continue reading “Handwashing as a risk control”
Each November safety publications carry guidances and warnings about unacceptable conduct at company Christmas parties. Often these warnings are around moderating alcohol consumption and showing due respect to others. One of the most recent legal advisories was issued in late-2008 by Maria Saraceni of the Australian law firm, Deacons. This week in Sydney the National … Continue reading “A sport’s culture of excessive alcohol at work functions”
On 26 January 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported on the appointment of Cass Sunstein as the “regulatory czar” under Barack Obama’s presidency. He is to be appointed the head of The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In 2003 in the precursor to the SafetyAtWorkBlog, SafetyAtWork magazine, I reviewed Sunstein’s book – Risk & … Continue reading “Cass Sunstein, Risk, Cost-Benefit and OHS”
Today, the UK Daily Mail published an example of the mish-mash of safety management problems that are confusing the public about what an OHS professional does. An amateur Christmas pantomime is confused by the plethora of safetyand health obligations being placed on them by, it is assumed, a variety of regulators. Let me speculate on … Continue reading “Safety challenges for English pantomime”