safety – Page 68 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Social change through worker dignity

The need for food parcels for those on workers’ compensation seems to continue in South Australia according to a 3 July 2010 report in Adelaide Advertiser. SafetyAtWorkBlog mentioned the service being offered by Rosemary Mackenzie-Ferguson and others in March 2010.

There are many areas of society that are supported by privately provided social services and this situation is likely to persist but just as soup kitchens illustrate a problem of poverty, so the food service mentioned above indicates a problem with workers’ compensation.

As each Australian state reviews its workers’ compensation laws ahead of a national harmonisation, it seems absurd to focus on the laws but not on the social impacts of those laws. It is common to refer to a “whole-of-government” approach to issues but “whole-of-society” seems to be a slower concept to embrace.

Much is being made in Australia’s OHS harmonisation process of the need to look at the enforcement policies that support new legislation. There is also a (flawed) reliance on Courts to provide clarity to the legislation rather than producing clear laws in the first place. But rarely does government look beyond the law, the Courts, or the enforcement policies to assess the potentially negative social impacts of the OHS and workers’ compensation laws. Continue reading “Social change through worker dignity”

Apprentice set on fire, bully gets $5k penalty

Most of the Australian media covered the prosecution of the latest of three young men who set fire to a work colleague during their apprenticeships.

As the case was heard in a Magistrates’ Court, the only sources of information on the case are a couple of original media reports and the statement from WorkSafe Victoria which says:

“Matthew Lever, 23, was the third apprentice to be prosecuted after a January 2008 incident where three apprentice mechanics ignited brake-cleaning fluid which they sprayed on another apprentice….

The Ringwood Magistrates’ court today [1 July 2010] convicted Matthew Lever on three charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and fined him $5,000. The two other apprentices were convicted on health and safety charges in December 2008, and also fined $5,000 each.” [link added]

WorkSafe says it is “currently investigating a similar incident which occurred in Dandenong in March, where two apprentice mechanics suffered burn injuries after allegedly igniting brake fluid.” Continue reading “Apprentice set on fire, bully gets $5k penalty”

Another Australia emergency organisation faces bullying claims

Emergency service organisations, like the military, are susceptible to accusations of bullying due to the hierarchical command structure on which they are based.

For decades this type of structure has been seen as a requirement for efficient emergency response or other activities under tight timelines and high expectations. It would not take much to perceive one’s supervisor saying “move it, move it, move it” or similar, over time as a repeated insult and, being repeated, an instance of bullying.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is reporting on claims by the former president of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board (MFB), Adrian Nye, who was stood down in April 2010. The ABC says Nye has accused the MFB of having a culture of bullying.

CEO Graeme Fountain has called in KPMG to investigate Nye’s claims.

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the hierarchical command structure is no longer compatible with contemporary expectations of respect, health, safety or wellbeing. Continue reading “Another Australia emergency organisation faces bullying claims”

An executive decision leads to over six deaths

“Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket”. The first time we hear such a saying is likely to be from our parents or our grandparents but it could equally apply to all the applications of risk management. Clearly someone at Sundance Resources forgot this wisdom when its board members boarded a plane in Africa to visit a mining site. The plane crashed and all on board died.

The remaining Sundance executives quickly acknowledged the error in media conferences shortly after the incident even though the decision was understandable. In safety and workplace parlance, the board took a “shortcut” in safety, an act that would have been soundly disciplined for most workers.

Everybody takes shortcuts at work and sometimes these shortcuts lead to injury or death. It is easy to say that the cause of an incident is a specific decision, the shortcut but it was not only the Sundance executive’s decision that contributed to the death. In this instance the board entered a plane that later fell from the sky. If they had made the same shortcut but on a different plane the outcome would have been very different.

Deaths always have a context to them and present a variety of “what-ifs” when we investigate. A specific combination of events/decisions/actions/shortcuts lead to a death. The Sundance shortcut was clearly the wrong decision, at the wrong time, in the wrong place and with the wrong mode of transport but there are more contributory factors that will become evident when the wreckage is fully recovered. Continue reading “An executive decision leads to over six deaths”

Oil rig workers speak about BP/Deepwater incident

The worker impact of the BP/Deepwater incident in the Gulf Of Mexico has finally been provide a mainstream media airing in 60 Minutes. Workers Comp Insider blog provides some commentary and embedded video of the show.

It is a curiosity of American television that everything is open for discussion even though an official inquiry is underway. This may be to do with the fascination of all things television but may also be reflective of a country whose legal structure allows for greater and more immediate self-analysis than the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth colleagues.

From the information available about the events preceding the disaster and immediately after, there was an increased production pressure on the oil rig’s workers. There was some confusion on the authority for decision-making on process matters. Emergency procedures were not well-developed or the practicalities anticipated.

Clearly there were flaws in the safety management system regardless of any design issues. The governmental inquiry will be able to provide a much more detailed and dispassionate report of these events but it is clear that at this one oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, safety management was not clearly understood or applied by workers at the frontline.

The world is looking forward to the “big picture” report.

Safety needs to be seen to be more than politics

Any optimism that one may have felt over the appointment of Cath Bowtell as the executive director of WorkSafe Victoria may be very short-lived if the reports on the cover of The Age newspaper are to be believed. The Age reports that Cath Bowtell is the frontrunner for a seat in the Australian Parliament following the MP for Melbourne, Lindsay Tanner’s decision to not contest the upcoming federal election.

For those who want political discussions on the Labor Party machinations, this is not the right blog. IF Cath Bowtell enters the race for a Federal seat, what does this say about the position of WorkSafe’s executive director? Continue reading “Safety needs to be seen to be more than politics”

New UK podcast on drilling regulation

HSE podcasts are almost always worth listening to. The June 2010 podcast capitalises on the topicality of offshore oil drilling generated by the BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico.

The podcast is available for listening online

The important element of the podcast is whether such deepwater drilling incidents could occur elsewhere? This is useful not only for the UK jurisdiction but for Europe and Australia.

The interview discusses the value of a “safety case” regulatory regime and the disadvantages of a prescriptive regime.

Interestingly the UK wells are individually notified to HSE almost a month before drilling is due to commence. This allows for an assessment of the well design and structure prior to activation.

Clearly, this approach stems from the Piper Alpha explosion in 1988. The BP Gulf incident can be considered the United States’ Piper Alpha.

It raises the question of did BP, an English company that should have been well aware of the usefulness of the safety case approach to drilling, apply a different approach to its Gulf drilling contractors to that applied elsewhere, and why? Was BP really committed to “best practice” in safety, or as it called it “beyond the best“?

Tag: safety

Social change through worker dignity

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Apprentice set on fire, bully gets $5k penalty

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Another Australia emergency organisation faces bullying claims

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An executive decision leads to over six deaths

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Oil rig workers speak about BP/Deepwater incident

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Safety needs to be seen to be more than politics

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New UK podcast on drilling regulation

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