On November 9 2015, WorkSafe Victoria charged the Essendon Football Club with breaches of the occupational health and safety (OHS) law over its controversial supplements program. This blog has watched how the Australian Football League (AFL), in particular, has acknowledged its OHS obligations and duties. This interest has been shared by Dr Eric Windholz who …
The Australian Government has released its report into a review of its national workers’ compensation scheme, Comcare, and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (SRC) Act. Some of the media (and politicians), as it often does, has focused on the seemingly absurd compensation claims. Few cases have gained the same degree of national and international attention as the sex case for instance, … Continue reading “Latest review into workers compensation provides OHS clues”
On 21 December 2012 in the South Australian Industrial Court, Amcor Packaging (Australia) was fined $A96,000 over a breach of the occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. That type of sentence appears frequently in SafetyAtWorkBlog but the difference this time is that it is the third similar OHS prosecution and fine applied to Amcor in South Australia. … Continue reading “It can take a long time to learn how to manage workplace safety”
The increasing prevalence of pictorial social media has generated a surge in organisations generating “infographics” from workplace health and safety statistics Almost always these images are a technique for generating internet traffic through established websites, blogs and other online services. Fundamentally it is stealth advertising for the unwary online user. However, such images have much … Continue reading “WorkSafe tries a new promotional approach”
Neil Foster of the University of Newcastle is known to SafetyAtWorkBlog for his work looking at the legal liabilities of company directors and officers. Recently Foster released a paper called “You can’t do that! Directors insuring against criminal WHS penalties” which provides an additional legal context to an earlier blog article. Foster acknowledges that “…provisions of the criminal law imposing personal … Continue reading “Insurance may diminish a director’s commitment to their positive OHS duty”
Legal analysis of the Montara oil spill inquiry reports have started to emerge. One of the first is by Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR). It does not discuss safety specifically but in many people’s minds Montara was not an occupational safety disaster as no one was injured. To many the explosion has far more relevance as … Continue reading “Analysis of Montara oil spill reports begins”
Comcare is often seen as a minor player in OHS regulation in Australia because, although it has national coverage, it limits its OHS and workers’ compensation activities to specific industrial and public service sectors. Although it is limited, it has a monopoly in those sectors and is powerful. Its role in Australia’s harmonisation program seems to be just another … Continue reading “Comcare at Senate Estimates – enforcement performance indicators”