On 30 March 2016, Melbourne hosted a Workplace Wellness conference organised by Informa. (SafetyAtWorkBlog attended as a guest.) The reason for attending was to see how occupational health and safety (OHS) is growing, or needs to grow, to accommodate workplace wellness issues and how the wellness sector looks on OHS.
Some say occupational health and safety (OHS) is all about common sense. This is a tempting fallacy, particularly as it relates to the risks of sedentary work – what earlier generations would describe as “sitting down”. This month Safe Work Australia (SWA) entered the debate about the health risks of sitting down for too long. …
Victoria’s occupational health and safety (OHS) strategy has been in a bit of a mess since the previous (conservative) government opted out of the harmonised work health and safety law process and brands were changed and changed again. It lost its claim to be leading Australian in OHS, or needed to explain its position, where before … Continue reading “Victoria increases OHS penalty three-fold”
On March 4, 2016 WorkSafe Victoria released a media statement with the headline: “WorkSafe announces new safety record in half-year results” The headline was reinforced (or the other way round) in the body of the statement with “The rate of injuries in Victorian workplaces has reached a new record low, according to the half-yearly results …
The Victorian Government has concluded the public hearing section of its inquiry into Labour Hire. Industrial Relations Minister Natalie Hutchins has said in a media release that “Evidence has been put to the inquiry suggesting widespread underpayment of award wages, tax avoidance, nonpayment of superannuation, poor occupational health and safety practices, maltreatment of workers and backpackers on …
Luke Hilakari became the Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) in late 2014. He has spoken at the 2015 Workers’ Memorial ceremony and in February 2016 he launched a new campaign focussing on occupational health and safety (OHS).
The Victorian Government has released the business case for the Melbourne Metro Rail project, a project that involves extensive tunnelling and high risk activities. Most of the discussion about safety in the document seems to focus more on end-user benefits than on those who will be constructing the project. The business case can be seen as a missed opportunity …