Underwear, sand, sun and safety culture

In October 2016 the Centre for Sustainable HRM and Wellbeing at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) will be welcoming Professor Wayne Hochwarter. Although, according to ACU, he is a “leading international authority on organisational behaviour research, his name was new to me.  ACU advised that Professor Hochwarter has experience in the following areas: Employee entitlement …

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Suicide Prevention Forum and Mental Health First Aid for workers

In March 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its latest figures into the causes of death. A lot of media attention was given to the figures showing an increase in the suicide rate.  It found that “Among those aged 15 to 44, the leading causes of death were Intentional self-harm (suicide)…” On the day …

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Ernst Young’s latest safety discussion paper

Ernst Young (EY) Australia has released a discussion paper about its “Plus One” strategy for occupational health and safety (OHS) and safety culture change.  Perhaps the curious and significant issue raised in the document is the way it considers that the “zero harm” era is over. The document urges people to “build on the lessons of … Continue reading “Ernst Young’s latest safety discussion paper”

Where is work-related suicide in the Suicide Prevention Strategy?

For all the discussion of workplace mental health, work-related suicide continues to receive little attention.  Part of this is because unexpected fatalities are shocking and distressing, even more so when the deaths are the result of the worker’s own efforts. Recently the Mental Health Commission of Western Australia published its latest Suicide Prevention 2020 Strategy.  The strategy …

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Just Culture and Restorative Justice

Sometimes it is better to read Sidney Dekker than listen to him.  His presentation style is lively but his research and thoughts deserve more measured analysis than a conference or seminar presentation allows.  A recent research paper, “‘Just culture:’ Improving safety by achieving substantive, procedural and restorative justice“, shows the advantage of reading over watching....

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OHS cost research needs to stretch itself

The annual workplace safety report Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety always gets a good deal of mainstream media attention.  It deserves some of this attention as it has provided sound information on work-related injuries and injury costs for many years but it is now looking dated as it is not keeping up with current … Continue reading “OHS cost research needs to stretch itself”

Old school OHS in mining

In August 2015, Western Australia’s Department of Mines & Petroleum (DMP) released a statistical analysis that seems to do little more than confirm what is already known.  It is important to validate data but the mining sector often promotes itself as leading in occupational health and safety (OHS) but this report seems dull and dated.