The current Executive Director of WorkSafe, Cath Bowtell, has confirmed that she will contest a seat in the Australian Parliament, according to The Age and AAP reports on 6 July 2010. As previously stated, this move sets some challenges for WorkSafe Victoria. The Acting Executive Director following John Merritt’s departure, Stan Krpan, put in his … Continue reading “Cath Bowtell jumps to federal politics”
Most of the Australian media covered the prosecution of the latest of three young men who set fire to a work colleague during their apprenticeships. As the case was heard in a Magistrates’ Court, the only sources of information on the case are a couple of original media reports and the statement from WorkSafe Victoria … Continue reading “Apprentice set on fire, bully gets $5k penalty”
Any optimism that one may have felt over the appointment of Cath Bowtell as the executive director of WorkSafe Victoria may be very short-lived if the reports on the cover of The Age newspaper are to be believed. The Age reports that Cath Bowtell is the frontrunner for a seat in the Australian Parliament following … Continue reading “Safety needs to be seen to be more than politics”
In the 1990s, WorkSafe Victoria (then the Occupational health and Safety Authority) coordinated Hazardous Chemicals Audit Teams (HCAT). I was one member of the administrative unit for HCAT. This coordinated approach to inspection and enforcement had substantial merit and was very effective as the Auditor-General found in 1995. I was reminded of this initiative by the simultaneous action taken by the Victorian Government against Mobil … Continue reading “The advantages of integrated enforcement action”
On 7 May 2010 Judge Lacava of the County Court of Victoria increased the $A25,000 fine applied to A Bending Company to $A75,000. WorkSafe’s Acting Director for Health and Safety, Stan Krpan, said in a media release: “The fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] found the original penalty inadequate, and the increase in … Continue reading “What is the OHS “public interest”?”
In a couple of years all Australian States will probably have OHS laws which require active consultation on workplace safety matters. But how effective will the consultation be if a noticeable part of one’s workforce struggles with literacy? For many years OHS included a gentle and steady push for OHS information to be provided in Languages Other Than English (LOTE). … Continue reading “Is illiteracy a big safety risk?”
On 20 May 2010 a Victorian magistrate fined an employer over $A500,000 following a workplace prosecution. Almost all of it went to charity, according to WorkSafe Victoria. There are several issues raised by Magistrate Vandersteen’s decision: Why to charity? Why the particular charities? Why not allocate the funds to OHS-related organisations or initiatives? Why does the Magistrates’ … Continue reading “Important OHS court decisions go unreported”