May Updates
Axento Safety: Providing you with expert risk management solutions to enhance your business success.
Axento Safety’s focus is to help create safe, healthy, innovative AND PRODUCTIVE workplaces. Axento Safety can partner with you to take the pain out of health and safety management, reduce the paperwork, making your life easier, enabling increased compliance, enabling productivity improvement and doing it cost effectively. This enables you to grow your business and sleep better at night.
Keys to getting design safety right
Most government and commercial organisations generally do not fare so well when it comes to ‘designing out’ safety risks before implementing programs, according to an expert in the field. Read more…
Jons Comments: This is an important article for all organisations to digest. I not only suggest you read it but read it again before sending to your management team and raising it at your board meeting. Improved performance will occur if you get the advice you need and your systems aligned.
WorkSafe Victoria Awards
Several of my clients could reach the finals of the WorkSafe Victoria Awards. The WorkSafe Awards celebrate and honour Victorians who have made a significant contribution to workplace health and safety or return to work. Entries always have a common thread – that of dedication and passion, to help ensure workers return home safe and healthy every day, or get back to work sooner, following an injury.
The added benefit is that good health and safety performance is good for business.
Background information and entry form for the prestigious 2015 WorkSafe Victoria Awards
If only for the excellent publicity it will bring to your organisation, checking out the award categories and putting in your application will be a positive exercise. Please contact me if you need assistance with your application – Its on the house if you contact me before 29 May!
Work health and safety—Remember PREVENTION.
Safe Work Australia Media Release 28 April 2015. 28 April was World Day for Safety and Health at Work and Workers’ Memorial Day — a day to focus on taking actions which can prevent future work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses, and a day to remember those that have died from a work-related injury or illness.
“28 April provided us with the opportunity to reflect on ways we could prevent work-related injury and illness” said Safe Work Australia Chair, Ann Sherry AO.
“Under the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 governments, unions, industry and business leaders are striving to improve work health and safety and we all have an important role to play.
“I know leaders can have a significant impact on improving work health and safety as well as improving the bottom line. Business leaders routinely manage a range of risks and can prevent injury and illness by actively managing safety risks.
“We need to reduce workers’ exposure to hazards and risks. By using good design principles we can minimise exposure by designing out the risk from the beginning – this is integral to prevention.
We have come a long way in reducing the numbers injured or killed at work but there is more we can and must do. In 2014, 185* Australians lost their lives through injury at work. This is not acceptable. “The important task for all of us is to work together to prevent further work-related death, injury and illness.
“So today, I encourage everyone to prevent further tragedy and make work health and safety your focus.” For more information visit the Safe Work Australia website. (* Preliminary data for 2014)
Jons Comments: We should be focussing on practical, risk-based prevention activity every day –it is cheaper, encourages higher productivity, reinforces good reputations, is more ethical and avoids injuries, downtime, low morale, investigations, compliance breaches, fines, increased insurance premiums… need I go on! How is your practical, risk-based prevention activity going? Do you need assistance?
QLD: WHS right of entry provisions restored
The Queensland Government is rolling out a comprehensive raft of industrial relations reforms, which includes restoring immediate right of entry provisions for WHS permit holders where there are suspected safety concerns. Read more…
Jons Comments: This change will help to realign QLD with other states however it would help if all states adopted the same legislation.
Study highlights OHS hazards in healthcare
Around six out of every 10 registered nurses, enrolled nurses, midwives and personal carers have experienced a work-related injury or illness in the past year, according to a recent survey. Read more…
Jons Comments: Many people assume that construction, mining, transport and agribusiness are the ‘dangerous’ industry sectors. Until we better understand and manage the risks in healthcare, the high number of workers being injured will continue. Within the healthcare sector, I frequently see lots of effort being placed on client safety rather than (or at the expense of) worker safety. An injured worker cannot assist a client: we need to get the priority right, provide a safe working environment first so that we can look after our clients.
51 people killed in work-related fatalities
51 people have died on the job so far in 2015, according to a Safe Work Australia review, which also found that the transport, postal and warehousing sector has consistently recorded the highest number of workplace fatalities in recent years. Read more…
Jons Comments: Sobering reading and largely avoidable
Arthritis and musculoskeletal issues cost $7.4 billion
Arthritis and musculoskeletal issues are negatively impacting workforce productivity by up to $7.4 billion a year, according to La Trobe University research report. Read more…
Jons Comments: In order to maximise worker productivity we need to try to prevent musculoskeletal disorders from occurring but as 60% of those with arthritis and musculoskeletal issues being in their prime working years, we need to modify our jobs to accommodate those who suffer from these challenges.
New handbook
The WorkSafe Victoria handbook Lift Work on Construction Projects provides advice for employers, employees, health and safety representatives (HSRs), and anyone who has a role in health and safety about controlling risks associated with the installation or refurbishment of lifts (lift work) on construction projects.
Jons Comments: If you have people involved in the installation or refurbishment of lifts (lift work) on construction projects, you need this new handbook.