August 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.
Coming soon: Globally harmonised system of classification and labelling of chemicals
With the globally harmonised system of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS) set to begin in Australia at the start of 2017, Australian businesses must understand the changes that will take place with chemical classification and management, according to Chemical Safety International. Read more…
Jons Comment This change will affect every organisation that purchases, uses, stores, mixes and/or disposes of Dangerous Goods and Hazardous Substances. The two GHS posters accessible from this link may be of use and interest GHS classification-labelling-posters. If you already have good systems to manage chemicals then the change may not be too daunting. Whatever your status, now is the time to prepare so that you can maintain effective and compliant systems up to and beyond 2017.
ASX companies lag in reporting safety and mental health outcomes
While the vast majority of Australia’s largest miners, banks and energy companies publicly disclose their workplace safety and mental health commitments to investors, barely one third share any qualitative or quantitative information on the effectiveness of such programs, according to an Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) research report. Read more…
Jons Comment: Our people present important risk and success factors for our businesses. Looking after our people significantly increases the likelihood that our people will assist our success. Some good tips are also available on the link Read more…
Employers increase focus on staff health and well-being
Companies are investing more in employee health and well-being, according to a recent benchmarking study, which suggests that the Australian workforce will see a significant shift in organisations dedicating more staff and financial resources to promote healthier workforces and drive productivity gains over the next two years. Read more…
Jons Comment: We invest in plant and equipment, we upgrade our systems and procedures but it all comes to nothing if we don’t talk to and support our employees, upgrade the skills and abilities, upgrade their working environment and treat them as our most important asset.
Officer’s WHS duties clarified in key decision
The ACT Magistrates Court recently handed down an important decision which reiterates the high criminal standard of proof that must be met in order to convict in relation to an officer’s WHS duty under the model Work Health and Safety Act, according to Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Read more…
Jons comment: The OHS/WHS duties and obligations of an ‘Officer’ should be of considerable interest to all board members and executive management. The questions are: what are my duties as a board member and/or member of the executive management team?, who is, or is not deemed to be a member of executive management? and if my company subcontracts to another, am I deemed to be an officer of that company during the subcontracted work? This article sheds some light on these important issues.
Safety mindfulness lacking in health care and social assistance industries but critical to all industries
While there are generally high levels of mindfulness of work health and safety across most companies, employers operating in the health care and social assistance sectors have the lowest levels of mindfulness in terms of what they count on in their business, preoccupation with failure and sensitivity to operations, according to Safe Work Australia. Read more…
Jons comment: Safety mindfulness is critical to ongoing safety. There are strategies we can adopt to encourage safety mindfulness. A very welcome addition that usually emerges is that not only to incidents reduce but productivity grows and innovation becomes part of the mindset. The strategies around creating safety mindfulness in your workforce are worth considering.