Safety insights from Return-To-Work Forum

A lot of statistics were presented at a workers’ compensation research seminar in Melbourne on 1 March 2018.  Monash University’s Insurance Work and Health Group provided a useful perspective on return-to-work matters with several points relevant to occupational health and safety (OHS). Both Professor Alex Collie and Dr Tyler Lane showed a graph about gun-related …

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What do Weinstein, Spacey and others have to do with OHS?

“Then I went, ‘Oh hang on, I’ve normalised so much of this as part of my industry…. This last three months has really made us all take a long hard look at what we have even let ourselves think is acceptable.” – Sacha Horler Such a statement is familiar to those working in the field … Continue reading “What do Weinstein, Spacey and others have to do with OHS?”

Near Kill – Jim Ward speaks

Jim Ward is hardly known outside the Australian trade union movement but many people over the age of thirty, or in the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession, may remember the person Esso blamed for the Esso Longford explosion in 1998.  Just after the nineteenth anniversary of the incident that killed two workers and injured …

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Measure the old, plan for the new

“What gets measured, gets done” is a common phrase in corporate-speak but needs to be treated with caution in terms of occupational health and safety (OHS). In The Australian newspaper of October 5 2017 (paywalled) an article about remuneration and innovation includes a brief but telling discussion of the perception of OHS. Sylvia Falzon is …

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Willox talks safety, fluidity, insurance and manslaughter

Innes Willox of the Australian Industry Group is a well-established figure in Australia’s political and industrial landscape.  As such he was a good choice to be the first speaker at a small safety conference in Melbourne Australia. The best speakers about workplace safety are often those who do not speak about safety but those who …

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Trade union leader stumbles over workplace safety

The Australian Government and the trade union movement’s latest tiff involves a misrepresentation of workplace safety.  The argument began after the first media appearance of the newly appointed Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Sally McManus.  The tiff is indicative of the political tensions in Australia but also illustrative of union perspectives …

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Citi’s 2015 Safety Spotlight shines light on some OHS areas

[This article from 2015 was previously password-protected and is now available to all] Recently a couple of media outlets referred to a report produced by Citi into workplace safety issues related to the top 100 companies on the Australian stock exchange.  The report, “Safety Spotlight: ASX100 Companies & More” (not available online), provides a useful …

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