“The conference inside is a bit of a sham” claimed Brian Boyd, Victorian Trades Hall Secretary at the first meeting into the harmonisation of Australia’s workers compensation laws.
“It’s really another hidden agenda about trying to harmonise workers comp after we fully know already, they’ve messed up harmonisation of OHS.”
Continue reading “The first workers’ compensation harmonisation meeting a sham: unions”
Continuing SafetyAtWorkBlog’s belief that the best advice on workplace safety often comes from people outside the OHS discipline, Professor Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College was interviewed in the Australian Financial Review on 30 March 2010 (only available by subscription). Schwartz was talking about the social and regulatory impact of the global financial crisis but his take on the obeying of, and dominance of, rules seems equally applicable in OHS.
“Schwartz says the common response to crises…..is to reach for more regulation. But the problem is that these people who run these banks are smarter than any set of rules we can come up with. So what will happen is that [the rule] will work for a while, and then people will find a way to subvert them.”
He goes on:
“I think a lot of the trouble that we have is that you’ve got these people who run institutions, the CEOs, make speeches about how ethical they are and they may even mean it, but the people who are actually making the day-to-day decisions know that unless they make their targets, they are going to lose their jobs. Continue reading “Can OHS achieve “practical wisdom”?”
The current edition of Lawyers Weekly includes some thoughts from Australian lawyers on the impact of the harmonisation of Australia’s OHS laws.
Michael Tooma of Norton Rose believes that the new positive duty of officers has sparked interest in improving corporate governance.
Graeme Smith of Freehills has seen an improved recognition of lawyers’ roles in developing commercial contracts. He also sees OHS as being better accepted as an element of risk management. According to the article entitled “OHS shrugs off the GFC”, Smith believes
“…national harmonisation will raise the profile of OHS, and in the long-term, OHS will find itself established as a discrete but integral aspect of corporate governance, compliance and risk management…”
He sees this as a golden opportunity for lawyers. OHS law seems now to be dependent on lawyers where, before, it used to be a law that workers, managers and the layperson could read, understand and implement. Safety professionals need to use legal experts when required but should have the confidence to manage safety through the harmonised framework first. Crucial to whether the lawyers dominate will be the quality of guidance provided by OHS regulators and the authority of the voices of the OHS profession.
Ian Watson is an Australian safety professional who also draws cartoons. His warped perspective on workplace safety is refreshing and his cartooning style is plain, almost “naive”.
He produces cartoons under the moniker of Unsafe! and one of his cartoons is below.
On 23 March 2010, SafetyAtWorkBlog questioned the need for so many government-sanctioned OHS awards and noted that there is little overlap between wellness awards and safety awards.
On 26 March 2010, Australia’s Safety Rehabilitiation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) announced a new category in its OHS awards that will
“recognise organisations that promote health and wellbeing in the workplace–long before employees are affected by injury.”
The SRCC is the organisation that looks after the OHS of
“the federal public service, the Australian Defence Force and national companies in the Comcare scheme.”
With the addition of this new category, the SRCC finally has awards that represent the continuum of worker health and safety from prevention to incident to rehabilitation or compensation. Continue reading “How many safety awards are too many?”
On 22 March 2010, Workplace Health & Safety Queensland released new guidance on the use 0f quad bikes.
There is no radical solution to quad bike deaths but there are some variations to existing advice which should be noted.
The most obvious is that “quad bike” is used through instead of ATV (all-terrain vehicle). This may annoy manufacturers but is very sensible given that the risks listed with using quad bikes specifically says that
“Quad bikes are designed for particular purposes and within particular operating conditions. Using them outside these parameters can significantly increase the risk of severe injury or death.” Continue reading “New OHS advice on quad bikes”
Australia seems to have more OHS conference now than ever before. The growth in annual conferences seems odd in a country with such a small comparative population but perhaps because the population is spread so much and there is such a strong resource sector, perhaps it is understandable.
SafetyAtWorkBlog put some questions about the phenomenon to Marie Kinsella, the Managing Director of Australian Exhibitions & Conferences, a major provider of these conferences and trade exhibitions in Australia. Some of her responses are below.
Has the recent global finance crisis made it more difficult for AEC to attract stallholders?
“The shows’ exhibitors have not been immune from the GFC, particularly those with international head offices, Continue reading “OHS exhibitions in Australia”