Australian OHS authorities have been struggling for many years to address issues of fatigue in the workplace. Partly this has been because the issue of stress and bullying came to dominate the psycho-social agenda. The transport industry has pushed fatigue into the unavoidable hazard basket. New South Wales’ experience with this issue has been particularly … Continue reading “New Guidance on Preventing Fatigue”
Over the last few days Australian media has been covering the hospitalisation of Tasmanian MP, Paula Wriedt. It has become apparent that Ms Wreidt attempted suicide as a result of a combination of work and family pressures. Being a politician is a difficult job and, as with any job, pressure can become excessive. This was … Continue reading “Another Australian politician attempts suicide”
In The Age newspaper for 31 July 2008, James Adonis wrote the article “Eight signs your workplace is crook”. One of those signs was stressed workers. He quoted a report by Watson Wyatt where employees listed stress as a major reason for leaving a job. Stress did not rank in the employers’ top five reasons for … Continue reading “Stress and job mobility”
Several submissions, from those currently publicly available, to Australia’s National OHS Law Review have referenced OHS conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is early days in the process of assessing submissions and one would expect more details on ILO Conventions to come from submissions of the ACTU and ACCI, both members of the …
Today, prominent New Zealand sports broadcaster Tony Veitch has admitted striking a previous girlfriend whose back broke in the incident. The issue of domestic violence is outside the approach of SafetyAtWorkBlog but Tony Veitch has identified some contributory factors to his actions – workload, stress and medications. Media coverage of Tony Veitch’s admissions will be … Continue reading “Domestic violence and workplace stress”
An article in today’s Australian newspaper reports on the coroner’s inquest into the death of Larry Knight in the Beaconsfield mine in 2006. It provides the first insight into the OHS report for the Melick investigation. In October 2005, six months before Larry Knight’s death, the mine was closed after a minor rockfall. It is … Continue reading “Beaconsfield Mine Inquest”