The Victorian Government’s inquiry into the on-demand, or gig, economy has released 100 of its public submissions. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a second-order consideration in the structure and regulation of this evolving work sector in a similar way to how OHS was considered in the inquiries into Labour Hire, but it is still …
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently written about suicide prevention and the organisational structures that can contribute to poor mental health. The prominence of the CDC should result in a spate of media reports about this NIOSH Science Blog article. Evidence of the link between the two has been building in Australia for …
Australia’s Federal election campaign has reached the halfway point but the political parties have yet to officially launch their campaigns so the policies that may relate to occupational health and safety (OHS) are unclear. Even the Australian Greens have yet to launch their campaign but some of their long-held policy positions are clear. The Safety … Continue reading “OHS policies of two of Australia’s political parties”
For all the discussion of workplace mental health, work-related suicide continues to receive little attention. Part of this is because unexpected fatalities are shocking and distressing, even more so when the deaths are the result of the worker’s own efforts. Recently the Mental Health Commission of Western Australia published its latest Suicide Prevention 2020 Strategy. The strategy …
Mental health, happiness, well being, safety, red tape …. each of these have been linked to productivity recently in Australian discourses but, as has been mentioned previously, productivity has a flexible definition depending on one’s politics and political agenda. There is multi-factor productivity and labour productivity. Each measure provides different results. So where does OHS … Continue reading “Labour productivity is “soaring” in a period of IR/OHS variability”
Occupational health and safety has many examples of addressing small or short-term issues rather than facing the difficult and hard, but more sustainable, control measures. I was reminded of this by a recent media statement from the United States Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in relation to fatigue management. In 2007 the CSB recommended that, following the Texas City refinery fire, “the … Continue reading “CSB pushes for a more effective discussion on fatigue management”
The New York Times reported on 17 May 2010 that psychologists have started considering the causes of workplace stress. About time! The report says that “Employees are unhappy about the design of their jobs, the health of their organizations and the quality of their managers..” and that unhappy workers have a high risk of heart attacks and depression. … Continue reading “Looking for the causes of workplace harm can change one’s world view”