Tag: awards

Transocean executives gain safety bonuses

News that Transocean are awarding their executives substantial safety bonuses has the internet aflame with outrage.  Certainly it seems hard to justify the bonuses given after the death of 11 workers and the damage to the local environment, economy and community but the action will also affect safety management.

 Safety management is increasingly relying on statistics to identify performance levels.  Transocean’s actions illustrate that some statistics bear little relation to reality or, at least, the real-world context of its operations.

AFP  quotes Transocean as reporting to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that:

“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate” Continue reading “Transocean executives gain safety bonuses”

Harsco’s safety award rescinded due to anomalies in injury claims data

The awarding of safety awards by government OHS authorities in Australia have needed reviewing for some time.  There remains inconsistencies on the openness of the judging processes and differences in award categories. In 2009, John Holland’s award nomination was withdrawn and now, according to the a video report on TV program Today Tonight in Adelaide, another safety award has been withdrawn.

According to the Today Tonight (click on SafeWork story on the left of the screen or in archives) South Australian manufacturing company Harsco has had its award withdrawn because the company fudged its safety performance figures.  The media release issued on 21 January 2011 by SafeWorkSA, the regulator managing the state-based awards, says:

“After careful consideration, the Panel has decided to rescind the award presented to Harsco Metals in the category of Private Sector Employer of the Year on the basis of anomalies in the interpretation and presentation of injury claims data made in the award entry.”

SafeworkSA is at pains to stress the ongoing integrity of the awards process but this action, emphasised by the attention given to the issue by Today Tonight, is a serious blow. Continue reading “Harsco’s safety award rescinded due to anomalies in injury claims data”

Australian OHS Awards need a review to stay relevant

Australia’s OHS awards season has concluded with many of the same challenges it had in 2009.

Most States have harmonised their awards categories so that the national OHS awards in March 2011 are fairer but the worth of some categories, listed below,  remains in question.

“Category 1: Best Workplace Health and Safety Management System

a. Private Sector

b. Public Sector

Category 2: Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue

Category 3: Best Workplace Health and Safety practice/s in Small Business

Category 4: Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health and Safety

An employee, such as a health and safety representative

An outstanding contribution by an OHS manager or a person with responsibility for work health and safety as part of their duties”

The category of most concern is “Best OHS Management System”.  For several years many OHS and media people have asked “why should a company receive an award for what they should already be doing?” Continue reading “Australian OHS Awards need a review to stay relevant”

SafetyAtWorkBlog is one of the top 25 workplace blogs for 2010: LexisNexis

I am proud to inform you that the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Community has chosen SafetyAtWorkBlog as on of it  “2010 honorees for the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issue“.

LexisNexis stated that:

“A winner last year as well, SafetyAtWorkBlog by Australian Kevin Jones is an excellent foreign OSHA and workers’ compensation product that features news and analysis of workplace issues on the other side of the globe.  This straight forward Blog provides insight and informative content into international worker safety developments, marrying the law, business processes, medicine, and social concerns into thought provoking commentaries.”

In the blogosphere and in OHS there are few opportunities for kudos for writing about workplace safety issues.  Many OHS organisations only communicate with members yet the profession is far larger than any one organisation.  I write the SafetyAtWorkBlog because safety needs interpretation, sometimes even translation, and, perhaps even more importantly, that voice needs to be independent.  The award from LexisNexis gives me hope that I am on the right track.

Please check out the other honorees at the LexisNexis site as several are new and are great sources of information

Kevin Jones FSIA

Safe Work Australia Ambassadors

I am proud to be one of the 50 Safety Ambassadors in support of Safe Work Australia Week for 2010.  A list of Ambassadors is available at the Safe Work Australia website.

Safe Work Australia has a strong support role for the safety week events held in each of the Australian States as well as providing national safety awards each year following on from the State awards mostly held this week.

Please take advantage of the many events occurring in your State.

Kevin Jones

Artificial intelligence in safety

For safety management and the profession to progress, the information horizons must broaden.  Particularly in Australia, safety research runs the risk of developing upper-class chinless inbreds as, in many cases, it is divorced from reality and often does not look beyond the horizon both in distance or time.  But research work in other disciplines may have applications in the safety profession.

The work of a doctoral student at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Xun Wang, may provide some indication of new tools that safety & HR managers could be using in the future. Continue reading “Artificial intelligence in safety”

The need to integrate worker safety in ‘green building’ design

The safety profession needs better integration with the environmental initiatives and requirements imposed on business.  In many industries compliance management across the quality, environment and safety disciplines has existed in an integrated fashion for years but many professionals in each discipline are unreceptive to change, some deny the need for change.

Australia, over the last few years, has seen an increase in attention to the safe design of workplaces and buildings.  This has paralleled the growth in sustainable and energy-efficient building designs.  In many circumstances,t the advocates and practitioners of these skills do not talk to one another.  One local example can be used to illustrate this inter-disciplinary blockage. Continue reading “The need to integrate worker safety in ‘green building’ design”

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