Archive for November 29, 2015

Sick leave increasing as bullying declines

The amount of sick leave taken by NSW public sector employees has risen by 7.9 per cent in the last five years, suggesting employers need to introduce strategies for the ageing workforce and disengaged employees, a new report has found.

It also found workplace bullying in the public sector decreased between 2012 and 2014.

The Public Service Commission’s (PSC’s) State of the NSW Public Sector Report 2015, released last week, says the upward trend in sick leave “raises concerns about the health of the workforce and the

New Online System to send Safety Message to Employees
Does your business need one?

Two employers have committed to spending a total of $600,000 on an online documentation management system, safety email alerts and other programs, after being accused of WHS breaches.

In the first case, Cape Cod Australia Pty Ltd entered into an enforceable undertaking with SafeWork NSW after two apprentices of contractor High Performance Constructions Pty Ltd were injured when a staircase fell on them in November 2012.

The apprentices and two other workers were trying to manually move the 2.7 metre-high

Coroner Safety Warning

A coroner has again been forced to warn that working under vehicles and other machines that aren’t properly supported “can and will lead to death”, after conducting his third investigation into such a fatality this year.

“That it is necessary for the warning to be repeated for a third time in less than a year is a cause for genuine concern,” Tasmanian Coroner Simon Cooper said.

In August 2013, a Launceston mechanic was performing a routine service on a 700kg motor mower alone when it fell on him and pinned

Safety Observations Drive Down TRIFR

An employer has reduced its total-recordable injury frequency rate by 24 per cent by increasing managers’ visibility in the field, rewarding safety-conscious workers and introducing an HSE “action program”, its latest sustainability report says.

Origin Energy’s 2015 report shows the company recorded a TRIFR of 3.8 per million hours worked in the 2015 financial year, down from five the year before.

The energy giant – which has 6900 employees and several thousand contractors – also recorded fewer lost-time cases and work days lost in 2014-15, while its lost-time

Obese worker fairly sacked despite medical certificates

A worker who was stood down with pay and told to lose weight so he could safely perform his role, and then sacked after he gained 10kg, has had his unfair dismissal claim rejected.

In Sydney, the Fair Work Commission found it was reasonable for the employer to rely on an occupational physician’s assessment that the worker was unable to perform his job, rather than on medical certificates that stated he was fit to work.

In February 2014, the Parmalat Australia Ltd cool room operator was

Three ways workplaces can tackle domestic violence

A coalition of business leaders has released a new guide explaining how employers can significantly reduce the prevalence and impact of domestic violence through a three-level model. Also in this article, the Fair Work Commission has rejected an appeal against a domestic-violence-related ruling.

The coalition, Male Champions of Change (MCC), is made up of 30 Australian CEOs, department heads and non-executive directors and tackles gender equality issues. It engaged KPMG to assist in developing a guide on how organisations should respond to domestic and family

Transition to new Act threatens injured worker’s benefits

A judge has found that she cannot take into account the fact that an injured worker might be deprived of a benefit – because of July changes to South Australian laws – in considering the man’s application to speed up the determination of his claim for non-economic loss.

The Pfeiffer Investments Australia Pty Ltd worker claimed lump sum compensation for non-economic loss, under the now-repealed State Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986, for an impairment to his digestive system caused by taking medication for a

Stressed at Work

A young Sydney lawyer, who like thousands of his colleagues struggled with depression at the outset of his career, has explained in a new book how to unwind when you’re “stressed at [your] desk”.

Jerome Doraisamy’s The Wellness Doctrines also includes chapters on managing onerous workloads, what doesn’t work when managing your health and wellbeing, signs and symptoms of depression among lawyers, the stigma about depression in the sector, and identifying and overcoming “legal idiosyncrasies” that contribute to the problem.

“The legal profession experiences alarmingly high rates of psychological distress, anxiety and depression –

Another fake high-risk work licence discovered

WorkSafe WA has reiterated its warning to employers to carefully check the validity of high risk work licences, after discovering a man, going by the name Peter Kevin Jenkins, is using a falsified licence covering 12 classes of high-risk work.

The fraudulent document stated that he held licences for advanced rigging, advanced scaffolding, boom-type EWPs, concrete placing booms, dogging, forklifts, hoists, derrick cranes, portal boom cranes, slewing mobile cranes, tower cranes and vehicle loading cranes.

“We warned members of the public back in March” – see related article –

New Amendment to WHS Laws

The national model WHS laws are being amended to clarify the reach of provisional improvement notices (PINs), increase penalties for WHS entry breaches and reduce “unnecessary regulatory burden”.

Safe Work Australia CEO Michelle Baxter told Senate Estimates last week that under the May 2014 COAG plan to reduce “red tape” in the model laws, a range of proposed changes were drafted and approved by SWA’s tripartite members early this month.

An SWA spokesperson today told OHS Alert that COAG asked state and territory work health and safety ministers to examine