Safetyatworkblog

23/07/2024

Work health and safety should be asking tough and challenging questions about how we work and how manage physical and psychological health and safety. This blog article includes some of those questions that I have been thinking over.

When wearing a motorcycle helmet and motorscooting to and from the office, I (too?) often think about occupational health and safety (OHS) while, of course, being situationally aware (mostly). It i…

22/07/2024

All work-related deaths are preventable, so it was surprising to hear of the number of deaths from trench collapses in the US. NPR produced an excellent report on this situation, a report that is also beautifully structured.

I am a fan of NPR’s radio program, All Things Considered. Occasionally, it reports on workplace health and safety matters. On July 19, 2024, it reported on the unacceptable number of deaths f…

21/07/2024

Next month, Australians will be awarded the Right To Disconnect outside contracted work hours. The magnitude of the change is debatable, but a recent webinar discussed the context of industrial relations and work health and safety.

While watching Maddocks’ recent webinar on the Right-to-Disconnect for its local council clients, I was reminded of a comment from one of Maddocks’ competitors, Steve Bell, of Herbert Smith Freehil…

19/07/2024

New Australian research into male loneliness identifies significant workplace factors.

Recent Australian research into male loneliness revealed some interesting work-related factors that employers may want to consider as part of their wellbeing and psychosocial change progr…

17/07/2024

If safety checklists and risk assessments are intended to be effective and revealing with Yes, No and N/A responses, why do they not ask questions but include multiple assessment criteria in the one response? (Open Access)

Recently, SafeWorkNSW launched a health and safety campaign for those who provide services in people’s homes, essentially Home Care providers. The message is good and simple, but this articl…

14/07/2024

A curious and oblique inquiry into sentencing for work health and safety prosecutions continues in Victoria with telling and not-so-telling statements in some public submissions.

Most submissions to the inquiry into Sentencing Occupational Health and Safety Offences in Victoria are now publicly available. They raise a lot of different issues and some grumbles even though t…

09/07/2024

As the new world of mental health at work grows and evolves, existing safety measurement techniques may also need to change, especially to pivot to a less worker-centric approach.

An article garnering some attention on LinkedIn (Yeah, I know, the Facebook for corporate self-promotion) has called for a different path to reducing occupational health and safety injuries. & #8220…

08/07/2024

ICYMI and most people did, Australia continues to strengthen the fundamental human rights of workers. Will it make workers safer and healthier? Maybe, but not just yet.

Work health and safety is a fundamental human right. Last year, I asked “so what?” Australia is strengthening the relevance of this international human right at the local level, but you…

04/07/2024

Will next year's Psych Health and Safety conference be worth attending? SafetyAtWorkBlog's opinion is.... Subscribe to find out.

Recently, Sydney, Australia, experienced the inaugural Psych Health and Safety conference managed by Flourishdx, a prominent Australian consultancy that identifies and helps companies manage psycho…

02/07/2024

There is likely to be a change in government in the United Kingdom this weekend. Work health and safety rarely features in election campaigns, but this does not mean there will be no changes. The Labour Party manifestos offer good comparisons for those countries with similar laws and politics.

Later this week, the United Kingdom hosts an election which the Labour Party, the “party of working people,” is expected to win. Its party manifesto has been out for some time, but its …

01/07/2024

Employers are responsible for providing safe and healthy workplaces but we are often puzzled by their safety decisions. It is importantly to understand some of the socioeconomic pressures behind employers’ safety and health decisions. In this way we can help employers make better safety and health decisions

There is a cost-of-living crisis in large parts of the world, there is a climate emergency, there are wars and political instability and insecurity everywhere. Why is occupational health and safety…

30/06/2024

We make management and business systems for ourselves and then we wonder why other people, like employees, feel they don’t fit. I David Daniels discusses work design at a recent safety conference.

Many conference delegates spoke highly of international speaker I David Daniels at the recent Psych Health and Safety conference. Daniels has a long occupational health and safety (OHS) career and …

27/06/2024

The COVID pandemic showed the overlapping of occupational health and public health. The US Surgeon General has recently labelled gun deaths as a public health issue. Occupational health and safety concepts can help address this public health threat by pushing consideration beyond primary prevention to the elimination of risk.

Our experience with a global pandemic has blurred the lines between what is public health and what is occupational health. In that context, it’s worth considering the public health strategies…

26/06/2024

People are hungry for mental health assessment tools to help them identify psychosocial risks at work and determine the severity of harm. A new Auistralian tool, the Occupational Moral Injury Scale, is in development.
https://safetyatworkblog.com/2024/06/27/the-occupational-moral-injury-scale/

25/06/2024

Within living memory was a time when workplace rights were seen as a benefit to the community and part of social progress. Then came a dubious ideology of individualism. Emerging now is a renewed sense of community with OHS as part.

A whole generation of workers has grown up believing that if they are having a hard time at work, if they are not coping with the workload or the sexual advances of their boss, or their difficult w…

24/06/2024

Last week, Zagi Kozarov gave a harrowing presentation on her mental health experience, but to some extent, it masked the work health and safety risks and challenges she faced in her time at the Specialist S*x Offences Unit.

Zagi cried. I cried, and the conference delegates cried. Zagi Kozarov’s presentation at the Psych Health and Safety Conference was confronting, disturbing, and a highlight. Occupational healt…

23/06/2024

Case studies presented at a recent psychological health and safety conference showed many approaches to mental health at work but no substantial or radical changes.

Delegates at the recent Psych Health and Safety Conference were desperate for case studies on how psychosocial hazards are being prevented in Australian workplaces. Instead, they were largely prese…

19/06/2024

Yesterday the CEO of Safe Work Australia, Marie Boland, said that work-related su***de, and more, is likely to become incidents that must be notified to work health and safety regulators. This is a big step in legitimizing psychosocial hazards at work.

The CEO of Safe Work Australia, Marie Boland, told delegates of the Psych Health and Safety Conference in Sydney on June 19 2024 that psychosocial injuries are likely to be notifiable to occupation…

17/06/2024

Industrial manslaughter laws continue to spread around Australia, but their purpose remains questionable. Justice? Vengeance? Deterrence? SafetyAtWorkBlog looks at the most quoted but least understood of these - Deterrence.

New South Wales is the latest Australian jurisdiction to introduce a penalty for Industrial Manslaughter (IM) in its occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. One of the primary aims of significan…

16/06/2024

A recent newspaper article included workers' compensation data about mental health at work but with a non-conformist perspective and challenge to the HR profession.

Recent Australian insurer Allianz released survey data that revealed: “….half of surveyed Australian employees claim they feel fatigued and burnt out”. This report generated a rec…

16/06/2024

I proudly announce that SafetyAtWorkBlog will provide exclusive coverage of the inaugural Psych Health & Safety Conference later this week. The line-up for the conference is star-studded with Australian and international experts on organisational psychology, organisational culture and mental health at work. There's never been a better time to subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog.

https://safetyatworkblog.com/

The conference is both a physical and virtual conference, and there is a "Buy One, Get One 50% OFF!" offer currently happening.
https://psychhealthandsafetyconference.com/

Buy One, Get One 50% OFF!From now until the end of ticket sales, buy one ticket, get one ticket 50% off! Offer applies to all ticket types (in-person, virtual and pre-conference masterclasses. If purchasing different ticket types, the lesser value of the two tickets will receive the 50% discount). D...

10/06/2024

Lawyer Fay Calderone has self-published a book on toxic workplaces and burnout aimed at "leaders" and HR professionals. The work health and safety context is present but overwhelmed and under-developed.

Australian lawyer Fay Calderone has published a book called “Broken to Safe – Tackling Toxic Workplace Cultures and Burnout”. The intended readership seems to be “leaders& #8…

06/06/2024

The Victorian Government has sat on its workplace psychosocial regulations for far too long, but Minister Danny Pearson clarified the government's position in Parliament recently.

Victoria’s Minister for WorkSafe, Danny Pearson, has emerged from the occupational health and safety (OHS) wilderness to restate his commitment to introducing legislative amendments on psycho…

03/06/2024

Employers decide the level of safety at their workplaces. OHS people advise them. To give the best advice, OHS should understand the political and socioeconomic factors that affect the employer’s decisions. SafetyAtWorkBlog looks at some of those factors.

Over the last decade, the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession has been challenged by a new perspective on OHS and its professional interaction with it. Safety Differently, Safety II or …

02/06/2024

The arguments about the safety of quad bikes has largely been resolved in Australia but some manufacturers remain inconsistent or incomplete in the information being provided to customers.

It is reasonable to claim that the quad bike safety controversy has been resolved in Australia through the intervention of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the impositi…

27/05/2024

That employers have the primary duty for work health and safety in their businesses is often forgotten and overlooked. Employers are THE change agents for OHS. Recently WorkSafe Victoria reminded everyone of this.

Two years ago, I noted that WorkSafe Victoria did not mention employers in an awards night speech. Since then, it seems “employers” has been omitted regularly from various calls for cha…

26/05/2024

Marie Boland was an important presenter at a recent OHS conference. A review of her talk shows that she would like the OHS profession to become more vocal, engaged and active.

Last week the Australian Institute of Health and Safety (AIHS) National Conference contained some excellent speakers and one or two stinkers. (I will not be reporting on the last speaker of the con…

22/05/2024

A Work Health and Safety trade show had huge crowds for its free psychosocial hazards seminars, even though some information was wrong or ill-informed. With this level of interest, why is the Victorian Minister sitting on the new regulations?

Victorian businesses and occupational health and safety (OHS) people are hungry for advice about managing psychosocial hazards at work if the scenes at today’s Work Health and Safety show were any …

22/05/2024

Day One of the AIHS National Conference offers some new OHS information and an innovative way of engaging with the audience but also has some presenters with tenuous connections to work health and safety.

A short report on Day One of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety’s (AIHS) National Conference in Melbourne. Given a previous blog article asking for new thinking, new approaches etc. Has …

21/05/2024

In Daniel Susskind's latest book, "Growth", he poses two significant moral questions that work health and safety people should also ask:

- What should we care about?

- What do we owe the future?

Regular readers may have noticed that I want to push the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession to think deeper and more broadly about their usually chosen career’s political and soc…