Tag: government

How many safety awards are too many?

On 23 March 2010, SafetyAtWorkBlog questioned the need for so many government-sanctioned OHS awards and noted that there is little overlap between wellness awards and safety awards.

On 26 March 2010, Australia’s Safety Rehabilitiation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) announced a new category in its OHS awards that will

“recognise organisations that promote health and wellbeing in the workplace–long before employees are affected by injury.”

The SRCC is the organisation that looks after the OHS of

“the federal public service, the Australian Defence Force and national companies in the Comcare scheme.”

With the addition of this new category, the SRCC finally has awards that represent the continuum of worker health and safety from prevention to incident to rehabilitation or compensation.   Continue reading “How many safety awards are too many?”

New OHS advice on quad bikes

On 22 March 2010, Workplace Health & Safety Queensland released new guidance on the use 0f quad bikes.

There is no radical solution to quad bike deaths but there are some variations to existing advice which should be noted.

The most obvious is that “quad bike” is used through instead of ATV (all-terrain vehicle).  This may annoy manufacturers but is very sensible given that the risks listed with using quad bikes specifically says that

“Quad bikes are designed for particular purposes and within particular operating conditions. Using them outside these parameters can significantly increase the risk of severe injury or death.” Continue reading “New OHS advice on quad bikes”

Government can do much better on level crossing safety

The Victorian Government is likely to say the Auditor-General’s report into “Management of Safety Risks at Level Crossings“, released on 24 March 2010, supports the government’s initiatives.  This is true but the report says much more than just describing the State Government’s efforts as “satisfactory”.  (If my child’s report card said satisfactory, I would be talking to the teacher about why the performance was only “satisfactory”)

The report summary says the following:

“The rate of progress in improving safety and reducing accidents has been satisfactory.  There are, however, elements of the risk management framework and its application that can be improved.”
These elements are specified as
  • “improving how the committee is informed of the views of the rail managers, who run train services and maintain the infrastructure, about their risks and priorities
  • assembling information that will allow the committee to effectively manage and monitor the delivery of the Towards Zero strategy
  • improving the understanding of what causes level crossing collisions.” [link added]

Clearly the Parliamentary committee is not getting the full risk story from the rail managers. Continue reading “Government can do much better on level crossing safety”

Workplace bullying needs harmony and good managers

The Australian Financial Review on 24 March 2010 includes an article (only available through subscription or hard copy purchase) that states that the “tangle of state laws hampers compliance” by business on the issue of workplace bullying.  Harvard Business Review reports on how to cut through the distractions and attend to a root cause of workplace bullying. Continue reading “Workplace bullying needs harmony and good managers”

OHS awards consider work/life balance but not vice versa

On 15 March 2010, the Australian Government congratulated the winners of, and participants in, the 2009–10 National Work–Life Balance Awards.

According to a media release from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations:

“The Awards…. recognise family friendly practices like flexible working hours, options for working from home, paid parental leave, job sharing, onsite carer’s facilities and study assistance.”
Teleworking and flexible working hours are both directly relevant to occupational health safety but also through the OHS elements of work/life balance.  But the National Work-Life Balance Awards Team told SafetyAtWorkBlog that
“No direct OHS performance indicators were included in the judging criteria for the 2009-10 National Work-LIfe Balance Awards.” Continue reading “OHS awards consider work/life balance but not vice versa”

Australian MP mentions workplace bullying but is short on practical controls

On 18 March 2010, the last sitting day of that session of Australia’s Parliament, Labor Member of Parliament , Bill Shorten, spoke about workplace bullying and the OHS prosecutions that stemmed from the bullying and suicide of Brodie Panlock.  Some of his short speech rehashed details of the workplace bullying prosecutions but, according to the draft of Hansard (page 93), Shorten made some useful remarks:

“I rise to speak on the issue of workplace bullying.  We would not think it was acceptable for people to come to work and be exposed to asbestos or toxic chemicals.  We should not think, therefore, that it is appropriate for them to be exposed to the toxic behaviour that is sustained and malicious bullying.  I believe that this kind of bullying is something which can be eradicated.  We have changed attitudes on smoking in the workplace and on sexual harassment; there is no reason why we cannot eliminate forever bullying in the workplace.

Bullying is an absence of kindness and Continue reading “Australian MP mentions workplace bullying but is short on practical controls”

Prominent OHS lawyer to facilitate workers’ compensation reform discussions

SafetyAtWorkBlog has been able to confirm the rumour that Barry Sherriff, a prominent Australian OHS Lawyer who recently joined Norton Rose, has been contracted to facilitate a series of exclusive forums on the reform of Australia’s workers’ compensation system.

Sherriff was one of the triumvirate who investigated a model OHS law for the Australian Government and should fulfill his contracted role for Safe Work Australia (SWA) admirably. Continue reading “Prominent OHS lawyer to facilitate workers’ compensation reform discussions”

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