There were 1222 workers’ compensation claims related to COVID-19 lodged in 2020, and of these, 974 claims were accepted, 127 were rejected and 121 are still pending, according to new Safe Work Australia data.
Of the 1095 accepted and pending claims lodged last year, 826 were for workers who had contracted COVID-19, 212 were for mental health impacts related to the virus, and 57 were related to testing or isolation requirements. Continue reading →
Why Employers, Unions, Workers and Government all need to come together for one Cause, that is Work Health and Safety
I have observed over many years the tension between employers, unions, workers and government over many issues. They include typically remuneration, workplace conditions, work hours, productivity, workplace morale and business profitability to name a few.
However, for the life of me I cannot understand why work, health and safety is also targeted as an adversarial issue between the relevant workplace stakeholders.
I don’t believe any employer wants to put their workers in harm’s way or comes to work with the mindset that one of our people will be seriously injured and potentially die today. And if they do they are simply fools and should have the full force of the law come down upon them. There is no doubt that reckless conduct needs to be punished.
I say they are fools as not only will their businesses and potentially individuals be prosecuted but they will also ruin the reputation of their business and in many cases the businesses themselves will fold, exposing the numerous parties involved.
99% of the employers I talk with genuinely care for the health and safety of their workers. This doesn’t mean they always get it right. It just means that their intentions are normally good.
I have also talked with employers where one of their workers has been seriously injured or killed and they are absolutely distraught with regret and sorrow. They normally say “what could have I have done differently” or “I don’t understand why this has happened”. Sometimes they foolishly say “this has never happened in the past and I thought it just would never happen in the future”. As we know the past history of performance in any business area does not denote future business performance.
As such, my wish is that good Work, Health and Safety practices becomes a common aspiration for all key stakeholders in the workplace. It should never be used to bash one another with as other industrial relations issues are. After all, as human beings we should all care for one another to ensure all workers come home every single day to their loved ones exactly the same way they left for work that day. There is no exception to this rule. If there are people who don’t believe this they have no place in our workplaces.
So, does that mean that we should lift penalties for poor health and safety outcomes at work.
In my mind they should only be lifted for the most heinous acts of reckless behaviour.
The truth of the matter is that the employers that will pay the price if we do increase penalties are the owners of small and medium enterprises where the line of sight between the Directors of the business and the Workers involved is clear and they can be personally implicated.
In large corporations I can’t imagine the Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking will ever directly be prosecuted for a Category 1 offence or even a breach of Work Health and Safety regulations when their line of sight to the workers involved is so difficult to prove.
So will Industrial Manslaughter Laws see Directors or PCBU’s of large corporations charged. I very much doubt it in all sincerity. It is much more likely that the owners of small and medium enterprises will be subjected to these charges.
So doesn’t it make sense that we stop being so damn adversarial about Work, Health and Safety and try to bring all the relevant stakeholders together with the common cause to bring every work colleague home safely again tomorrow.
Last year in Australia alone, 183 workers did not come home to their loved ones. Many hearts are broken every year and many never recover.
Isn’t this enough of a reason to bring everyone together for this one most common cause.
As I often say in presentations “ Good Safety is just Good Business”.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]While some avenues for influence have been narrowed for WHS professionals in by not being able to be physically present when speaking to decision-makers through 2020, this has been potentially offset by WHS professionals’ increased visibility in critical roles which operationalise COVID-19 responses. Continue reading →
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This time last year, parts of Australia were badly affected by extreme heat and bushfires. Working in heat and/or in air pollution can be hazardous and can cause harm to workers in both indoor and outdoor work environments. Continue reading →
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Psychological hazards in the workplace receive less attention than physical hazards, however, such hazards – including workplace bullying – are increasingly identified as significant contributors to psychological injuries, according to a recent Productivity Commission report. Continue reading →
Safe Work Australia has released the Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2019 report, which provides the latest detailed national statistics on all workers and bystanders fatally injured at work.
The 2019 report shows that over the last decade, the number and rate of work-related fatalities have been gradually decreasing. Continue reading →
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last year in Australia, Safe Work Australia preliminary data shows that around 180 people died while doing their job. Around 107,000 people made a workers’ compensation claim for serious injury or illness in 2017-18.
Safe Work Month (SWM) runs every year in October and this years theme is ‘Work Health and Safety through COVID-19‘.
Safe Work Australia has published new guidance to help businesses navigate the transition to GHS 7.
Australia will begin a two-year transition to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals Revision 7 (GHS 7) on 1 January 2021. Continue reading →
The NSW Government has launched a new campaign urging farmers using side-by-side vehicles to wear seat belts following a spate of deaths across the state.
Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, Kevin Anderson, said the campaign is focused on lifting on-farm safety following a rise in preventable deaths in side-by-side vehicles. Continue reading →