WorkSafe WA has released a statement detailing the prosecution of Midland Bricks over a worker had his right arm and shoulder torn from his body by a machine in 2006. Midland Bricks was fined $A70,000 over the incident. The factors involved in this incident include the following familiar issues: pinch points machine guarding interlocks emergency stop buttons supervision documentation.
Machine guarding is one of the most effective and longstanding control measures for occupational hazards. Sometimes safety people even get excited about them. Equally safety people, regulators and magistrates, get angry when the guards are left off. One company in South Australia on 1 February 2010 received two penalties for similar hand injuries that occurred … Continue reading “No guard = hand injuries + $50k penalty”
It was good to hear the President of the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), Barry Silburn on the radio on 7 December 2009. The SIA has traditionally been very hesitant about going public on safety issues but clearly the potential disappearance of the School of Risk & Safety Science from the University of New South … Continue reading “The future of the School of Risk & Safety Science”
Almost two years ago, two rail workers died in Queensland. According to the official report into the incident: “At approximately 1056 on Friday 7 December 2007, two QR [Queensland Rail] Infrastructure Services Group (ISG) track workers were fatally injured as a consequence of being struck by a track machine (train) at Mindi, approximately 130 kilometres … Continue reading “Big fine for Queensland Rail – big risks in rail”
Yesterday’s article on positive training programs and behaviour-based safety (BBS) has generated a great deal of interest and attention. The article’s title should maybe have specified the “OHS context”. Like with Return-To-Work, OHS professionals need BBS and positive training to be explained to their understanding so they see how it fits with their own … Continue reading “How to make positive training programs attractive to OHS professionals”
On 29 October 2009, WorkSafe Victoria held its WorkSafe Awards event at the Palladium Room at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. SafetyAtWorkBlog attended as a guest. All the winners were deserved and there are short profiles of some of the winners below. The first award was for the Health & Safety Representative of the Year, won by Phyl Hilton. Hilton … Continue reading “WorkSafe Victoria Awards winners”
On 1 July 2009, the Australian industrial relations (IR) climate changed with the introduction of the Fair Work Act. Regardless of the politics of the new Act’s origin, this legislation changes the way that working conditions for Australians are negotiated and set. The Fair Work Act has no relevance to occupational health and safety, so … Continue reading “Fair Work Act and OHS”