Australia’s Productivity Commission released its draft report into Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Occupational Health and Safety on 27 January 2010. The 432-page report will take some time to read and digest but below are the general key points of the report “This study compares inter-jurisdictional differences in occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation in … Continue reading “Business assessment of OHS”
Depression as an occupational illness is one of the most difficult hazards faced by managers and safety professionals. Depression is hard to understand and it is often difficult to recognise an employee who suffers from the condition, let alone, figuring out how the workplace may contribute to the illness. [Mental health issues are going to … Continue reading “Prevention of depression is better than treatment”
Further to the recent research and media blitz by Dr David Dunstan, the British Journal of Sports Medicine reports on some similarly themed research from Sweden. According to the BJSM “Doctors from the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, say that the term “sedentary behaviour” has come to mean … Continue reading “The risks in sedentary behaviour gain credence.”
Most of the Australian media have reported on a memo to staff of the Australian Department of Health that only allows smoking while on meal breaks. Health Department employees are not permitted to smoke while undertaking departmental duties or “when representing the department in any capacity”. Government authorities have long participated in smoking reduction campaigns which have succeeded in minimising … Continue reading “Health Department bans all employees from smoking at work”
Australia has many safety awards programs. SafetyAtWorkBlog has reported on some of the practical solutions from the awards and lamented how the prominence of such solutions fades quickly as the mainstream media ignores them. The blog has also shown examples of a hard copy solutions database that existed in Victoria and Australia for a couple of decades. The … Continue reading “A good book of safety solutions case studies”
Regardless of concerns over the veracity of data, Tourism Australia’s “No Leave, No Life” campaign is continuing to develop its media presence. The Seven Network announced this week that “No Leave, No Life” will form the basis of a television program to be broadcast from 5 December 2009. As is the nature of TV shows, … Continue reading “Annual holidays get a TV makeover”
WorkCover in South Australia has released a discussion paper for public comment on 9 November 2009. The paper is called “Consultation on a new framework for employer incentives” and poses the following questions: Do you think there should be any financial incentives for employers in relation to workers rehabilitation and compensation? What do you think about the … Continue reading “Fixing what is broken”