Earlier this year, SafetyAtWorkBlog reported on the attack on a nurse in the Torres Strait Islands north of Australia, the investigation of the issue by Queensland Health and the mechanisms introduced to get the working conditions and accommodation up to a safe level. In this case there was a clear link between occupational health and … Continue reading “Management failures and a rape of a five-month-old baby”
(Particularly) since the fall of Lehman Brothers, the returns on investments throughout the world have dived. Australia has been relatively unaffected but the signs are starting to look bad and if it wasn’t for China and India buying the country’s resources, Australia’s economy would more closely resemble Europe and the United States. This turmoil … Continue reading “Worker’s Compensation Funds and global financial problems”
SafeWork SA recently released details about the successful prosecution of MCK Pacific P/L (trading as Plexicor) over two injuries in a carpet manufacturing plant in South Australia that occurred in January 2006 and July 2007. The company was fined a total of over $40,000. The new management has been congratulated on its new OHS management program … Continue reading ““Negligence” and salvation”
One of the tasks I have in my consultancy is assisting the Safety Institute of Australia to promote their Safety In Action conferences. As part of this I have been able to provide some videos from the May 2008 conference. The videos are excerpts from the presentations of four of the chief executive officers and company directors who spoke … Continue reading “Australian CEOs and workplace safety”
Safety At Work magazine has been reporting on the seemingly endless deaths in the Chinese mining industry for many years. Many of the mine fatalities are of multiples that would generate huge investigations in the west. Many deaths are compounded by the attempts of mine managers to minimise the scale of the disasters by delaying … Continue reading “Why are many of China’s coalmines closed?”
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) has received considerable media attention since the pipeline explosion at Varanus Island. On 3 July 2008, it issued a fact sheet about its role and reporting process. It is worth remembering the lines of authority and accountability when reading media reports on the explosion’s investigation.
Some years ago the CEO of an OHS certifying body came to Australia from the US. He spoke intriguingly about the benefits of having an independently-assessed safety practitioner registration. I could see the potential international career benefits but I am already a registered safety practitioner through my membership with an OHS professional association. I couldn’t …