Safe Work Australia has released a new publication – Work Health and Safety in the Agricultural Industry.
The report identifies key risks faced by workers in the agricultural industry and provides statistics about injuries, fatalities and workers’ compensation, including how the agricultural industry compares with other industries.
Safe Work Australia has announced it will evaluate the workplace exposure standards for more than 600 chemicals to ensure worker health and safety in Australia is comparable with latest evidence and international best practice.
Workplace Early Intervention
Workplace early-intervention programs play a crucial role in preventing mental health problems escalating, and have helped one white-collar worker realise her back and neck pain was exacerbated by anxiety, according to occupational physician Dr Andrea James.
In a podcast released by SANE Australia’s Mindful Employer program, James – Viva Energy’s senior occupational physician – says it’s not uncommon for the early signs of mental ill-health to first become apparent at work, and a workplace early intervention program helps workers recognise the symptoms.
She says that at one organisation she previously worked at,
Gossip constitutes bullying under Fair Work Act
Spreading “misinformation or ill-will” against a worker constitutes bullying under the Fair Work Act, a commissioner has found in advising a company to develop policies on how workers in neighbouring businesses should treat each other.
FW Commissioner Danny Cloghan also found that telling a worker to “‘get fucked’… departs from normal social interaction in the workplace and [falls] within the definition of bullying if repetitive”.
However, he dismissed an application for a stop-bullying order – made by a worker who allegedly received such abuse – because
RSRT orders employers to pay safe rates
The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal has issued a remuneration order affecting supermarket chains and other employers, and noted it has received no evidence disputing the link between low driver pay and poor safety outcomes.
The Transport Workers Union welcomed the order, saying it will ensure drivers are paid for waiting and queuing time, while loading and unloading vehicles, and while cleaning, inspecting, servicing and repairing their trucks and trailers.
It also ensures retailers and manufacturers that use transport operators are held to account for pressures placed
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
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
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
New WHS legislation takes effect January
Are you ready?
National
As of January brand new WHS legislation will be brought in across Australia. As flagged by the Federal Government in October, employers are no longer required to obtain AS/NZS 4801:2001 certification before tendering for Commonwealth construction projects.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz said at the time that this and other changes to the Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme, including extending the maximum accreditation period from three to six years for “consistent high performers”, will free up the Federal Safety Commissioner to target
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