Last week the Queensland Government proposed changing some of the health and safety laws that relate to mining. Changes to occupational health and safety (OHS) laws that improve workplace safety are almost always welcome, but to some extent these recent changes are “catch-up”. The Government’s media statement of the proposed laws is very positive and the …
The recently appointed Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Sally McManus, made a major speech at the National Press Club on 21 March 2018. It was forecast to lots of media outlets the morning prior to the speech with selected quotes from McManus, flagging how significant the trade union movements consider this speech. …
The annual Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) breakfast was held in conjunction with Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) law firm on 21 February 2018. This year the audience heard from two representatives of WorkSafe Victoria – Marnie Williams, the Executive Director and Paul Fowler, the Director of the Enforcement Group. The WorkSafe presentations were interesting but included …
The latest push for Industrial Manslaughter laws in Australia has appeared as part of the Tasmanian state election. The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Labor Party released its policy platform for jobs in February 2018 which makes specific and vague commitments on workplace safety which require scrutiny. Precarious Work The Tasmanian Labor Leader, Rebecca White, …
The Victorian trade union movement is preparing for the November 2018 State Election with one element of that campaign being the advocacy of Industrial Manslaughter laws. At the end of January 2018, the unions “kicked off” their campaign with a meeting which reviewed the challenges and wins for injured workers in 2017 and outlined their … Continue reading “Victoria is ripe for Industrial Manslaughter laws”
Several past SafetyAtWorkBlog articles have been posted in SoundCloud as audio files. One article is a reading of two articles from last year about Queensland’s industrial manslaughter laws. The other reminds us that sexual harassment and sexual assault did not appear in relation to Harvey Weinstein accusations. The Australian Human Rights Commission report into sexual … Continue reading “Two new audio readings”
Episode 5 of Safety At Work Talks podcast contains a chat with safety lawyer and partner with Clyde & Co, Alena Titterton. The conversation touches on safety issues like industrial manslaughter, dealing with police at an incident, certification to safety standards, safety in procurement, and small business. It was also good to hear her talk … Continue reading “Titterton talks safety”