Recently an international business established an intranet discussion forum concerning “employee engagement”. By and large, this is another example of business management twaddle. Essentially, when one engages with another, there is discussion, a conversation and the sharing of ideas in a cooperative, positive manner. In OHS circles this is called “consultation”. By discussing issues, people … Continue reading “Engagement is Consultation re-badged”
Since the 2006 rockfall at Beaconsfield Mine in Tasmania, the public has received limited information. There have been books about the rescue of two workers and the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Larry Knight. Greg Mellick undertook an investigation into the rockfall and found that noone was to blame for the rockfall. Many workplace … Continue reading “Why won’t the Tasmanian government release the OHS report into the Beaconsfield mine collapse?”
SafetyAtWorkBlog would not purport to be knowledgeable about airlines, Turkish or Australia but there was a fascinating article published in Europe on 12 March 2009 that discusses the safety culture in Turkish Airlines. The article is entitled “Islam and the art of aircraft maintenance” by Claire Berlinski
The New York Times (and other newspapers) reported on an article in the latest edition of the NSC Journal of Safety Research. It is worth considering when the behavioural-based safety advocates come a-knocking. According the media reports the article reports on “knowledge gaps” in research into behavioural safety. It summarises the discipline, or alchemy depending … Continue reading “New research on behavioral safety”
As in most professions during time in occupational health and safety, one meets amazing people. One that SafetyAtWorkBlog cherishes is Melody Kemp. Melody is an ex-pat Australia who currently resides in Laos. As well as working on OHS matters throughout the Asian region she is also the author of the excellent OHS publication Working for Life: Sourcebook on Occupational … Continue reading “Indonesian Mines & Depleted Uranium”
Advocates of safety culture regularly profess that it must be lead from the top of the corporate structure down. This applies a false definition of leadership. Leadership is innovation, understanding and support regardless of one’s position on the corporate ladder. It is true that professing leadership and corporate goals should be supported by the appropriate … Continue reading “Leading from the top on impairment”
In May 2008, the Safety Institute of Australia held a conference where, for one day, CEOs and senior executives talked about their experiences with workplace safety and how they manage OHS in their workplaces and with their boards of management. The presentations were of variable interest but those that were good were very good. The …