union – Page 8 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Is night shift reasonable practicable?

Tony Carter, has provided some additional information about occupational fatigue after reading the fatigue article on this blog earlier today.

Carter was one of three authors of a 2007 article in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene entitled “Epidemiological Diagnosis of Occupational Fatigue in a Fly-In–Fly-Out Operation of the Mineral Industry” (abstract only available online). The abstract says that:

“A disturbed diurnal rhythm at the beginning of night shift and a roster of more than eight consecutive days were identified as the primary contributing factors to occupational fatigue in this setting.”

It is fair to say night shift and eight consecutive days of work are the causes in this research but research without proposed controls is of little practical use. Thankfully the study by Anthony Carter, Reinhold Muller and Ann Williamson provides some control suggestions – naps and changes to lighting. Simple in concept but possibly difficult to implement. How does a company provide naps in a production line operation? Can production continue as lighting lux levels are reduced? Continue reading “Is night shift reasonable practicable?”

Only animals should die in abattoirs

The Sunday Age of 30 January 2011 ran an article about the status of workplace safety in some of Victoria’s abattoirs. The article has some similarities to the landmark investigations by Eric Schlosser into work practices and compensation issues related to meatworks in the United States.

The Sunday Age says that

“(Last financial year [2009/2010], there were 355 workers’ compensation claims in Victoria’s meat industry that required at least 10 days off work, or cost more than $580 in treatment, or both – almost one a day. Nationally the industry’s injury and illness rate remains twice as high as that in the construction industry, and four times the average of all workplaces.”

Many would say that meat work is “inherently dangerous” but in the article lawyer Trevor Monti, contests the perception

”Yes, it’s a difficult industry and the work can be hard,” he says. ”But with proper consideration given to the system of work, the risk of injury can be significantly reduced.”

This is a position with which OHS professionals and regulators would agree.

It is significant that, if the comparative figures quoted above by the Sunday Age are accurate, abattoirs do not receive the enforcement attention that the construction industry receives. Is it that the construction industry is largely unionised and the meat industry much less so? Is it that abattoirs are rorting the immigration visa system as asserted by the Australian Meat Industry? Continue reading “Only animals should die in abattoirs”

How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?

Workplace fatalities are terrible, lingering tragedies that generally don’t teach anything new about OHS failures. I couldn’t find anything new in the frightening detail in the article below (dated 14^th December 2010) or in scores of Google searches of industrial/occupational fatalities; though disease fatality epidemiology can be informative.

If all workplace fatalities in Australia were stopped overnight, most workers wouldn’t notice a single improvement in their own workplace. They’d still be working in the same cluster of hazards, useless risk assessments and a regular sprinkling of near misses and daily shortcuts. Despite regulators’ and politicians’ shrieks of dismay at workplace deaths, such fatalities don’t represent the main OHS problem at work.

If any regulator was informed in advance – in some detail – that in a particular industry there would be three fatalities in the next three months (or even intolerable risk) they wouldn’t know how to prevent them. Example? Think of the insulation program, which still has some way to go and a few more surprises in store. Example? Over the next six months there are likely to be 3-6 quad bike-related fatalities in Australia, mostly as a result of rollovers.

Or think of the value of risk assessments: example? Consider the 60,000-80,000 barrels (10,000 tons) of the most dangerous hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste stockpiled and being repackaged (ultimately, drum to drum) by workers in a primitive work process at Botany Bay Industrial Park, Sydney. One of the world’s largest stockpiles of such dangerous wastes that no one around the world is prepared to handle. This is the only place I’ve ever had to wear two layers of protection to inspect. What has the regulator done? Continue reading “How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?”

Telling is better than being exposed

Many OHS laws place obligations on employers to notify regulators ( ) of any particularly serious (often defined) incidents. In many jurisdictions regulators are sometimes informed of work-related hospital admissions, for instance, even if employers do not notify. But there is substantial benefit in notifying the regulators early.

Anecdotal evidence shows that by facing up to the reality that an incident has occurred is less costly in the long term as this shows that one is aware of one’s OHS obligations and willing to apply them.

The wisdom of reporting incidents in a timely manner is perhaps illustrated by a 17 December 2010 article in The Age newspaper. It is rumoured that incidents involving apprentice tiler Kane Ammerlaan may not have been reported to the OHS regulator in Victoria, WorkSafe.

Prompt reporting may not have been able to improve Ammerlaan’s situation relating to the fall but investigations into this possibly life-changing incident could have begun much earlier, and when evidence was easier to collate.

Ammerlaan also alleges that:

‘Through my six weeks I was constantly abused. There was a lot of verbal abuse; they’d throw stuff at me; I was shot with a nail gun on a few occasions.”

This may raise, yet again, the safety issue of the treatment of young workers and apprentices; an issue on which the community seems to require regular reminding.

Kevin Jones

New documentary of the politics of OHS regulation in the United States

Two years ago, Rachel Maddow in the United States reported on the performance of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) under President George W Bush revealed by the Washington Post. Cavelight Films is in the process of completing a film, Cost of Construction, First video below) which looks at the big OSHA and political context as it relates to the safety performance on a major construction project in Las Vegas.

From the trailer above, and additional information available through the Cavelight website, the film illustrates the dubious societal value of basic capitalist approaches to workplace safety. Continue reading “New documentary of the politics of OHS regulation in the United States”

Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes

The smoke from the mine:

It has been a frighteningly bad month in the mining industry internationally. OHS meetings I attended during this period have been hushed as a result of the New Zealand tragedies. Discussions about OHS have become more pertinent and more accurate – for the time being. But this, like stunning but short-lived cactus flowers, will quickly disappear.

Because I’ve had close involvement with the Beaconsfield Gold Mine rockfall that killed Larry Knight, and years earlier with the Esso Longford explosions and fires in Victoria, the CrossCity tunnel fatality in Sydney… and many other tragedies or near misses, such events, like a sudden cramp, re-focus my thinking on current issues. Another OHS failure that we didn’t stop.

Quad bike safety:

One such issue I’ve been involved in for some time has been the quad bike safety issue. The fatality statistics I have on these machines in Australia show that over the last 10 years 13 people (on average) are killed per year. 130 people, most of whom, the industry will have you believe, were ‘mis-users’ of the machines (see below). The trend is up not down.

I have just resigned from the TransTasman Quad Bike safety committee created by the regulators last year. The OHS and quad bike interest group in the community may be interested in some of the difficulties I see with the current work on this issue.

The obvious and useless in practice:

I think a much greater degree of transparency and openness – including a high level public conference – ought to take place. And neither the regulators nor industry will be interested in that; Continue reading “Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes”

Harmonisation becomes more difficult with loss of another political support base

The Australian Government faces another hurdle in its strategy for OHS harmonisation with another State Government, Victoria, falling to the conservative Liberal /National party coalition. OHS has hardly been mentioned in the state election campaign as all of the reform action is at a national level but, as Mark Skulley reports in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) on 29 November 2010 (not available online):

“…the Coalition will be more critical of the state’s militant unions, particularly when it comes to major infrastructure projects, and take a more sceptical line on the Gillard government’s push for a national occupational health and safety regime.”

A Skulley article in the 30 November 2010 AFR indicates that the Australian Council of Trade Unions has received a strategy document that has “urged unions to become more independent of the ALP [Australian labour party]..”

As the union movement is the strongest and loudest advocate for occupational health and safety in Australia, union policies and strategies should be of great interest to the OHS profession.

Until Prime Minister Gillard makes her next statement, or mention, of OHS legal reform publicly, the harmonisation process is in serious limbo. This on the eve of the release of draft OHS regulations and codes of practice.

Kevin Jones

Tag: union

Is night shift reasonable practicable?

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Only animals should die in abattoirs

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How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?

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Telling is better than being exposed

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New documentary of the politics of OHS regulation in the United States

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Of stunning, short-lived cactus flowers and quad bikes

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Harmonisation becomes more difficult with loss of another political support base

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