Reasonably practicable control measures are most often determined by the courts during a prosecution. Every other determination of reasonably practicable in occupational health and safety (OHS) compliance is an educated guess by employers. However, this does not always have to be the case, as a short excerpt from the Annual Report of New Zealand’s Ombudsman illustrates. Pages 52 …
Psychosocial hazards are gaining attention online, but the pace of change remains sloth-like. Two recent online events provide good, basic occupational health and safety (OHS) and organisational psychology information and some insight into the slow pace....
Last week, RMIT University launched the Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe), a new safety, health, and wellbeing research fund that will work collaboratively with the University of Colorado’s Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA) and others. This is a promising source of funds for new occupational health and safety research in the construction industry. SafetyAtWorkBlog …
Recently, Australia’s Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) produced a position paper that said: “‘How to lift’ training programs do not reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders. Despite this, a recent survey found that almost 80 percent of employers had provided ‘how to lift’ training to their workers in the past two years… Providing ‘how …
John Brogden‘s book Profiles in Hope sounds like it is about suicide, but it is about much more than that. His interviews with a broad group of Australians, some very prominent, say a lot about growing up, anxiety, depression, distress, trauma and, sometimes, suicide, but it is primarily about hope. This is not a book about …
Employers and health and safety professionals are desperate for case studies of companies that have successfully applied the recent occupational health and safety (OHS) emphasis on managing and preventing psychosocial hazards at work. Safe Work Australia has released a case study on this in the retail industry. “Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards in retail” …
Significant changes in occupational health and safety result from one or more work-related fatalities. To my knowledge, this has not been labelled anyone’s “rule”, but it is a sad truism, and there are examples everywhere. Episode One of the BBC’s excellent Grenfell podcast series references the phrase “show me the bodies” as having been said …
