September 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.
Culture is on the (board) table and can’t be ignored
It’s not just good governance, directors have a legal obligation to guide and monitor organisational culture. Alan Cameron AO FAICD is interviewed ahead of this year’s Essential Director Update. Read more…
Jons comments: Culture has a major impact on organisational reputation and performance. It is important that we communicate from the top on what is expected; challenge whether the culture is achieving the outcomes desired and ensure that we do not become complacent. Safety is often seen as an effective lever to improve organisational culture because all employees have a vested interest in their own safety. If improving employee engagement, retention, discretionary efforts and productivity is of interest, consider engaging Axento Safety to assist you with some well targeted safety strategies.
What boards and managers fail to understand about safety
While the boards of many companies understand the importance of safety, they often do not understand all that the term encompasses, according to an expert in safety leadership. Read more…
Jons comments: The inability of a board to understand good safety practise is discussed here with the solution being to have high quality safety expertise available to the board, board committees or on the board itself.
Warning on vehicle movement after multiple incidents
WorkSafe WA recently issued a reminder to ensure safe systems of work are in place in workplaces where vehicles and pedestrians are present, following a number of recent incidents involving people being injured or killed by vehicles or parts of vehicles such as ramps. Read more…
Jons comments: Maintaining a good separation between vehicles and powered mobile plant is the key to preventing the sorts of incidents described in the article. It is a common issue in many workplaces. With careful thought, most of the risks can be reduced to acceptable levels without affecting productivity.
Conviction over falls from scissor lift
An electrical switchboard manufacturer has been fined $180,000 after two workers were seriously injured, when they fell from a scissor lift. Read more…
Jons comments: This is a classic tragedy resulting from a failure to recognise concurrent activities and adjust for them. A tragedy for those hurt as well as for every employee in the now liquidated company. Easily prevented with appropriate training, good communication and risk assessments.
What is the most common sun safety misconception?
One of the most common sun safety risks is when workers use the daily temperature as the measure for whether or not they sun protection, according to Victorian SunSmart manager Sue Heward. Read more…
Jons comments: With the first warm weather of Spring upon us, now is an excellent time to read this article. It should challenge a few myths and have is better able to prevent avoidable skin damage and cancer risks. The clear message for me was: “Your skin is like a memory bank − it remembers all your encounters with UV and adds them up. Working outdoors on a daily basis means you build up high amounts of cumulative UV exposure…. you can reduce your risk of further damage and cancer at any age.” Read it and if you are interested in sun safety ideas, please get in touch.
Chair of Governance and Directors
I have been requested to Chair the Governance and Directors stream of the SIA National Safety Convention “Safety Differently” to be held this week.
This stream, comprising four speakers: Patrick Murphy; Dr Kirstin Ferguson; Dr Sharron O’Neill; and Steve Bell is designed to deal with the role of boards and directors in meeting both their obligations under the act. Equally, there is room to challenge the compliance paradigms that now dominate boards approach to safety management, frequently, management by lag metrics. There is room to explore the role that boards have for culture and facilitating open communication. The panel session will enable conference participants to question the speakers
In an earlier session, Michael Tooma will challenge the current approach to compliance thinking, where he will emphasise the role of boards for engagement, problem solving and prevention; rather that documenting compliance activities that fail to deliver prevention.
The session is intended to pitch the due diligence obligations with the emerging concepts of Safety Differently, where the boards become enablers of problem solving. Please get in touch if you would like further information on this important topic.
Confined Spaces – potentially lethal traps
A worker and six would be rescuers die. Seven workers were overcome by toxic gas from a Chinese paper mill’s waste pool and died. A single worker was cleaning the pool filled with pulp paper waste when he fell in. His co-workers rushed to help but were also overcome by the noxious gas, resulting in seven workers dying and two more being injured. More recent incidents in China…
Jons Comments: This is yet another example of a tragic ‘cracked record’. I have come across numerous examples from Australia and elsewhere, of people not taking adequate precautions when entering a confined space, getting into trouble and when others try to help, the would-be rescuers die as well as the original worker. It is time for all business to: review their confined spaces; their Confined Spaces legal obligations; training; procedures for safe entry; equipment; lookouts; communications; and capabilities for immediate rescue should anything go wrong.
Virtual Seminar series – 2015
Following last year’s very successful Virtual Seminar series, the all new 2015 Virtual Seminar Series program will be available on the Safe Work Australia website in October. View the full VSS program. Among other topics, this year’s seminars will discuss good work design and safety throughout supply chains and will focus on the construction and manufacturing industries. Program items include live broadcasts, online Q&A sessions, and a range of resources including case studies, research, and ideas to support your own work health safety activities.
Jons Comments: This is a valuable resource and all organisations should find information relevant to your specific needs. You can also revisit last year’s Virtual Seminar series, especially if you missed it.
Regulators continue to focus on ‘sham contracting’
With increased attention on sham contracting, employers should review their current policies with regards to the engagement of workers and review agreements/arrangements currently in place with any independent contractors. This article considers the substantial penalties that have been imposed in recent prosecutions for sham contracting and the recent report issued by the Fair Work Ombudsman into alleged sham contracting with the Victorian Government. Read more…
Jons Comments: This article focuses on findings from the Fair Work Ombudsman about whether the people you engage as contractors, should actually be engaged as employees and provides guidance on this matter. From a health and safety perspective this difference is also very important. Your obligations to both contractors and employees are similar but the processes you need to employ in order to meet those obligations can be very different. To reduce risk and potential cost overruns, good contractor selection processes including robust health and safety criteria will help to ensure you engage people who will safely and reliably deliver the outcomes you require.
National Transport Commission (NTC) Discussion Paper
The NTC Discussion Paper ‘Primary Duties for Chain of Responsibility Parties and Executive Officers’, is suggesting significant changes to chain of responsibility duties and how compliance and liability will be measured (COR discussion paper available here…).
Jons Comments: The maximum fines under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) will be brought into alignment with the harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) Acts. The current maximum $20,000 fines would be raised to $300,000 and/or imprisonment for 5 years for an individual and up to $3 million for a corporation. Currently there is a reverse onus of proof i.e. you have to prove you are innocent. The NTC proposals would require the regulator to prove you are guilty, a far better situation. I suggest all involved with Chain of Responsibility obligations obtain a copy of the paper and become familiar with the proposed changes and what will need to be done to comply with them.
How safe is your workplace?
WorkSafe is encouraging all Victorians to visit www.howsafeisyourworkplace.com.au and take the online survey. The survey will help you identify what your workplace is doing well and provides relevant practical advice on how to improve. There are some useful downloads available free once you have completed the brief survey. The campaign will run from 23 August to 19 September 2015. View the 30 second TV advertisement here…
WA state government to ban live electrical work
Live electrical work will be banned under WA state government changes aimed at avoiding more deaths in the electrical contracting industry. The changes will be enforced by WorkSafe WA, with changes applying to work including insulation, roofing and plumbing. Read more…
Jons Comments: This legislative change should save lives as is to be generally welcomed however I hope that the legislation also acknowledges the need for ‘live work’, especially during testing and commissioning: with suitable controls this can be done safely. It is interesting to see that BHP and two electricity network operators will be exempt from the proposed legislation. Providing exemptions raises moral and practicability questions regarding the intended changes. We may see similar legislation proposed elsewhere across Australia, I will keep you posted.