October Updates
Axento Safety provides you with health and safety expert witness and risk management solutions to enhance your business success.
In addition to incident investigations and expert witness services, Axento Safety’s focus is to help create safe, healthy, innovative AND PRODUCTIVE workplaces. Axento Safety partner with you to take the pain out of health and safety, provide safety management systems, reduce the paperwork, achieve certifications, enable increased compliance, enable productivity improvement and achieve this cost effectively.
Contact Jon Temby to improve risk management, grow your business and make your life easier.
October is National WorkSafe Month
Many events have already been held across Australia however don’t miss out on the excellent program, head to the Victorian WorkSafe Month website to find a free Victorian event near you. If you are in other states, check out their regulators websites for further ideas. Activities you could implement include:
- Having guest speakers on health and safety topics
- Confirming your commitment to improving health and safety performance
- Conducting workshops on health and safety topics, and
- Launching new health and safety initiatives
WorkSafe legislation amendments Bill 2017
The WorkSafe Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (WLA Act) makes amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act), the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (WIRC Act), the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (AC Act) and the Dangerous Goods Act 1985 (DG Act).
Amendments to the WIRC Act, AC Act and DG Act came into effect on Wednesday 27 September 2017, while amendments to the OHS Act will come into effect on a day to be proclaimed. The amendments are designed to improve workplace safety by:
- strengthening compliance and enforcement tools
- ensuring penalties under health and safety laws act as a sufficient deterrent and breaches can be appropriately investigated
- ensuring that injured workers and their family member are entitled to fair and equitable compensation, and
- improving the workability of the four Acts.
Jons comment: The changes include:
- Giving WorkSafe more time to prosecute serious offences and increases penalties for serious breaches of the OHS Act.
- Duty holders who fail to notify WorkSafe of an incident, or don’t preserve a site after a serious incident will now face up to $38,000 in fines for individuals and up to $190,000 for body corporates.
- New powers to prosecute where an offender breaches an enforceable undertaking and new penalties can be applied
- Compensation entitlements of up to $5000 for travel and accommodation to allow family members to travel to visit an injured worker in hospital, or to attend a funeral service.
To avoid the risk of these changes adversely impacting your business, talk to me about a review of your OHS related systems, procedures and operations.
Safety Institute of Australia – OHS Construction Forum, 30 Oct 2017
The Safety Institute of Australia will hold the 2017 SIA OHS Construction forum on Monday 30 October at RMIT University. This year’s topic is: Flexible Work Arrangements in the Victorian Construction Industry: Perceptions, Practices, Problems and Progress. This topic aims to discuss:
- Legislative requirements
- Work conditions and flexible work options in the construction industry
- Ageing workforce impact
- Female workforce impact
- How do we move forward from here?Event Details:Date: Monday 30th October 2017,
Time: 11.00am -1.30pm (Registration starts at 10.45am)
Venue: RMIT University City Campus, 445 Swanston St, Building 80, Level 7, Room 1
Cost: Complimentary – Light refreshments will be provided. Register your attendance with SIA Registrations close 25 October 2017
Jons comment: these forums are worth attending if you work in a field related to construction. I have been one of the guest speakers several times but not this time.
Why do big companies over-bureaucratise safety?
“Safety has become increasingly bureaucratised over the past 20 years, “… Read More…
Jons comment: I see this challenge almost weekly, Sidney Decker states that “It’s easy to make things difficult, and difficult to make things easy”. I frequently find myself simplifying safety procedures, SWMS etc, to ensure that the important information is readily accessible, to save time and to provide adequate compliance with regulatory obligations. This process is always greatly assisted by excellent communications between workers and line management.
BHP Billiton reduces incidents by 30% with leadership program
The BHP Billiton 4 step leadership program has played a critical role in reducing events with the potential to cause a fatality by 30% Read More…
Jons Comment: These 4 points can be modified and used for health and safety performance improvement in all organisations. Check them out and consider how your organisation could benefit from implementing them.
Contractor fined $1.3 million over Forklift tragedy
A poultry contractor was recently convicted and fined $1.13 million over an incident in which a man was struck and killed by a forklift. Read more…
Jons comment: Traffic Management Plans (TMPs) are necessary where pedestrians and powered mobile plant are operating. However, no TMP is effective if it is not fully implemented. In this case, it appears that no safety precautions were implemented and a person was killed. It’s too late to say sorry and try to fix things up after someone dies or is seriously injured. Good incident prevention is good for business.
Safety plan for the Hospitality Industry
SafeWork SA recently launched an action plan to help improve health and safety outcomes in the hospitality industry. Read more…
Jons comment: This is a great strategy to improve OHS performance in the hospitality industry. Hospitality is a major employer involving many small, medium and large businesses who will benefit from its implementation.
WorkSafe prosecutions update
WorkSafe has updated its summaries of prosecution outcomes up to 28 September 2017 Read more…
Jons comment: As with previous OHS prosecutions lists, check out the types of common breaches that are occurring then review your activities and take the action necessary to ensure that you stay off this list. If you need assistance to conduct a comprehensive review, please contact me.