The safety industry in Australia may be seeking to become a recognised profession but, as with most business processes, continuous improvement is an important element of remaining current. The Australian Medical Council has released a revised draft code of conduct with which several members of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) disagree. According to an AMA media … Continue reading “Lessons from a draft medical code of conduct”
In April 2002, I interviewed Lawrence Lorber of US law firm Proskauer Rose on workplace bullying. It was at the height of the Enron collapse and corporate behaviour towards staff was gaining a lot of attention. Over the last fortnight I have been researching some of the management books and concepts concerning leadership, emotional intelligence, … Continue reading “Workplace bullying – interview with Lawrence Lorber (2002)”
SafetyAtWorkBlog has previously referred to safety videos produced by the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB). The latest safety message from Chairman John Bresland relates to combustible dust explosion risks, a hazard that exists around the world and one that has been mentioned in this blog. A curious element in this very good video is that … Continue reading “John Bresland’s latest safety video”
Australia’s Productivity Commission has released a report into the national regulation of plastics and chemicals. The supplementary report has additional topicality as it is released a week before the Review Panel into Model OHS Law presents its report to the government. The key points of the Productivity Commission report are “The Productivity Commission has recently … Continue reading “Government report into plastics and chemicals”
Earlier this week Queensland MP Tim Nicholls, of the Liberal-National coalition gave the Queensland Transport Minister, John Mickel, a serve over the $10 million program on level crossing safety by calling the response “window dressing”. Nicholls seems more interested in political point-scoring than safety but he asks “What has happened to all their much vaunted … Continue reading “Political argy-bargy on level crossing safety”
Advocates of safety culture regularly profess that it must be lead from the top of the corporate structure down. This applies a false definition of leadership. Leadership is innovation, understanding and support regardless of one’s position on the corporate ladder. It is true that professing leadership and corporate goals should be supported by the appropriate … Continue reading “Leading from the top on impairment”
On the night of the 29 October 2008 over 570 people attended the WorkCover NSW Safety Awards. The awards are in their fifth year and the ceremony was professional, well organised and, perhaps most importantly, an excellent opportunity for safety professionals to meet others. There were clients and advisers, ergonomists and hygienists, health and safety … Continue reading “New South Wales Safety Awards Night”