CSG Posts
FREE webinar -AI in audits and certification
Join Intact Systems and Exemplar Global, who will be presenting an insightful and forward-looking webinar on the impact of artificial intelligence on management system standard certification and auditing processes.
In this one-hour session, Jochen Kleboth, Intact’s Head of Analytics and AI, will lead you through the latest developments in AI applications for certification and auditing, sharing his expert insights into the AI-driven future of conformity assessments. He will cover:
*How AI is streamlining and enhancing auditing and certification
*Insights from real-world applications
*What to expect in the future of AI for management systems
The webinar is aimed at auditors, trainers, quality/environmental/health & safety managers, or anyone who plays a role in compliance and certification.
The webinar is taking place on Wednesday, November 27th at 1:00pm EST -that's Eastern Standard Time in the US, which means for those on the East coast of Australia it is taking place on Thursday, November 28th at 5:00am. Don't worry if you're not an early riser, though, because anyone unable to attend live, will receive the recorded video link later, so long as they have registered for the event. Click on this link to register.
All who attend are eligible to earn CPD credits to further professional development.
Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of certification through the lens of AI. They look forward to seeing you there!
Daryan Rosic was thrown in the deep end when our original speaker from Allianz became unavailable and he has only been with the organisation for a few weeks. However, he was more than capable of dealing with the situation and gave a comprehensive and fascinating presentation.
Daryan began by presenting valuable information from extensive research undertaken by Allianz in partnership with other organisations over a number of years. One of the key messages from this research is that workplaces need to be open to new ways of working and a diverse workforce. This is the area Daryan focussed on.
It is inevitable that more and more younger people are entering the workforce, and this can create a generational divide. Daryan offered a number of tips to break down this divide and support diversity and wellbeing in the workplace.
In fact, Allianz is demonstrating this in their own workplace: since 2021 they have run a traineeship program with Jigsaw Australia to provide work opportunities for neurodiverse people. Daryan explained what a benefit it has been for the organisation and how it fits with his notion of "psychological ergonomics". That is where a role is created to fit the person, rather than expecting them to fit an established mould.
Daryan also directed us to a range of free resources and guides on the Allianz website - see https://www.allianzcare.com/en/support/health-and-wellness/health-guides.html#guides.
Daryan's talk was really enlightening in the way he invited us to new ways of thinking about what a workplace can look like. I was struck by the notion that people "bring their whole selves to work". Sometimes we can be a bit rigid about processes and outcomes without considering the real humans making it happen.
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On the eve of National Safe Work Month, Victorians are justified in asking “Where the hell are the psychosocial safety regulations?”
Over two years ago the Victorian Government was proud to be leading the pack of jurisdictions and various WorkSafes in promising amendments to the occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. Now it is the last to introduce those amendments
In reality, those laws seem as far from introduction as ever. The government has conducted two rounds of public consultations on the issue with the last ending early this year. Since then WorkSafe representatives have pre-empted the inevitable question at their public appearances by saying, rightly, the “the laws are with the Minister” or “on the Minister’s desk”. The delay is becoming negligent.
This delay is puzzling as the government had a major inquiry into Victoria’s Mental Health System and, although workplaces were on the periphery of consideration, there was an overlap. The unions are in favour of psychosocial reform. Business groups always argue against any new OHS regulations based on the spurious, rote reasons of increased cost of compliance. But this whiney opposition is very weak when all other jurisdictions have resolved any concerns. So why hasn’t Victoria?
It is highly likely that whatever draft regulatory amendments the government holds are out of date compared to the other States and Territories and a further cycle of consultation may be required. All the while, workers are facing psychosocial hazards that their employers could be controlling. Of course, employers should have been controlling these since the OHS duty of care in 1985, but many employers do not act on occupational hazards until they have to. And in Victoria, they feel they don’t have to.
Remember this Minister’s delay on the elimination and management of psychosocial hazards at work, the next time any government representative says that “we give the safety of Victorians the highest priority”. If that statement were true, the OHS laws would have been amended over 18 months ago and workers would have been safer.
Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/
This year's HSR Conference will be held on Tuesday 22 October, 8:30am - 2:45pm. The topic is OHS Skills for Active HSRs.
This is a free event and is a WorkSafe Victoria approved course of training under s69 of the Victoria OHS Act 2004. This means that HSR's are legally entitled to attend the conference on paid time. However, you must give your employer at least 14 days’ notice of your intention to attend in order to ensure that you receive paid leave. This means that you must notify your employer by COB Monday October 7.
The venues for 2024 are:
Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at 1 Convention Centre Pl, South Wharf.
Bendigo at Bendigo Trades Hall, 34-40 View Street, Bendigo.
Morwell at the Italian Australian Sporting Club, 499-501 Princes Drive, Morwell.
Wangaratta at the The Gateway, 29-37 Ryley Street, Wangaratta.
Warrnambool at Lady Bay Hotel, 2 Pertobe Road, Warrnambool.
Conference Program
8:00am
Doors open. Get your name ticked off and pick up your conference bag. Coffee and tea will be available.
8:30am - Session 1
Luke Hilakari, Secretary VTHC
The Hon. Danny Pearson MP, Minister for WorkSafe
Joe Calafiore, CEO WorkSafe
9:20am - Dr Lisa Heap
Dr Lisa Heap is a labour lawyer and a researcher with a keen focus on work health sand safety, regulation of work and gender inequalities. She'll be talking to us about OHS skills that can be applied in workplaces.
10:00am - Morning tea
10:30am - Session 2
We'll be hearing from 3 HSRs from a variety of industries. They'll share their stories of the skills, resources and tools they used to make their workplaces safer.
11:25am Breakout Session 1
In the first session, we'll have an opportunity to debrief the preceding sessions and recap some of the key rights and powers HSRs enjoy to better enable them to be active HSRs and represent their DWGs to establish controls. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.
12:15pm - Lunch
1:15pm - Breakout Session 2
Building on first session, we will have an opportunity to reflect HSRs' own workplaces and the type of skills they can use, before moving on to discussion.
2:45pm - Certificate Collection
Certificates of Attendance will be available for collection in the foyer.
For more information & to register, click here
The softly-spoken, widely-experienced David Caple is like the Obi Wan Kenobi of ergonomics, on whose every word we hang as he imparts his wisdom and guidance. This month's presentation covered a range of topics that highlighted his wealth of knowledge and experience and, indeed, why his expertise is sought after all over the world.
Just back from the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) Congress in Korea, David gave a snapshot of the main topics of interest. He also recommended the IEA's series of Ergonomic Checkpoints publications, available freely on their website. Delegates gave great feedback on them, appreciating the simple case studies.
There you will also find a new publication Giving your business the human factors edge… Making it Happen! David is a co-author alongside Karen Lange-Morales (Colombia) and Andrew S. Imada (USA). This is aimed at line managers and supervisors.
David shared some case studies of his own, one to do with MSD issues related to large paint cans; the other concerned design of safe frontline staff environments. There is such a balancing act required when designing counters, for instance, and he showed us some of the pitfalls in this area. Screens are another contentious issue. In all cases, he recommends using prototypes before launching into changing design as this allows the people using the equipment to test it and provide feedback.
David briefly mentioned some innovation at the Department of Justice, which piqued our interest, and we are already looking at making that a topic for one of our events next year.
Financial members can access all of David Caple's previous presentations in our CSG archives. Once logged in, click on the Speakers tab on the banner at the top of the page, then type in "David Caple" in the Search box.
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WorkSafe Victoria is running Health and Safety Month again this October and the theme is "Connect Learn Share".
As a part of the activities, free 45-minute webinars on a variety of topics are being run via zoom, so you can attend from the comfort of your own home!
A few of the highlights are:
October 28: Work-related gendered violence in healthcare; High-risk crystalline silica work and ban of engineered stone
October 29: Workplace safety in Victoria: challenges and priorities. Presented by: Joe Calafiore, Chief Executive Officer, WorkSafe Victoria, and Sam Jenkin, Executive Director, Health and Safety, WorkSafe Victoria.
Manual Handling Basics: Do’s and Don’ts of risk control
How the WorkWell program can support a mentally healthy workplace. Presented by: Darcy Cooper, Program Manager, WorkSafe Victoria.
Nic Crooks, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, WorkSafe Victoria.
Darcy spoke about this program at the CSG May event this year.
October 30: From risk assessment to incident investigation: Why consultation is so important; Safe use of elevating work platforms (EWPs)
October 31: How changes to the WorkCover scheme will impact injured workers; Preventing exposure to welding fumes
November 1: Treatment pathways – Mental injury.
Supporting and supervising apprentices. Presented by: Professor Helen Lingard, Executive Director, RMIT Safety and Health Innovation Network, and Peter Booth, Senior Construction Advisor, WorkSafe Victoria.
Prof. Lingard gave a great presentation to us in October 2023.
There is also a wide range of in-person regional activities.
Further details on the speakers and topics, as well as registration for the webinars & events, are available on the WorkSafe website here: https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/events
What an eye-opening presentation this was and what a great double-act Phil & Carly proved to be! Phil Dwyer has the wisdom of many years of experience in the construction industry & OHS, while Carly Chambers only became a South West TAFE OHS Officer in 2023, but her enthusiasm for the role shone through in her joint presentation with Phil in August.
The two generations clearly complement each other as they tackle a number of unique OHS issues across 5 campuses covering a large geographic area in SW Victoria. The distances between campuses mean that Phil & Carly do a great deal of travel in their working week, and so both have had training in defensive driving, which is essential on rural roads.
Other risk factors about these regional sites include the fact that 3 of the campuses are in fire-prone areas. The most rural site, Glenormiston, was originally a squatter’s farm before becoming an agricultural college, and now a TAFE. School camps still take place there, however, and so night-time evacuation drills are required. Not to mention training to deal with wildlife!
One campus has the town’s public library on-site, which means there are issues with public access. Another has a public bus route running through the middle of it –something most workplaces don’t have to contend with.
During their presentation, they showed a couple of contrasting photos: the new WorkSafe HQ in Geelong, which has been a boon for awareness of regional OHS issues, and the WorkSafe regional office in Warrnambool. The latter covers a huge section of Western Victoria, but has only 4 inspectors and the building is a small shopfront that looks like it could have been a local pharmacy once upon a time. The contrast in resources is staggering.
Nevertheless, Phil & Carly certainly never have a dull moment, and enjoy the challenges each day brings.
When CSG added its Zoom component necessitated by the dreaded pandemic, we didn’t realise at first what a benefit it would be. Not only do we have people like Phil join as financial members, but it also means we can have speakers from far beyond our CBD limit. In this instance it proved a bonus for us, because it was really fascinating to hear about a completely different OHS environment.
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On a windy, wet Tuesday in July, intrepid members of Central Safety Group attended a site visit to Melbourne & Olympic Parks –it was just like being at Wimbledon!
Fortunately for the group, hosts Scott and Glen had special security clearance to use the below ground corridors. It provided protection from the rain as well as the opportunity to view operations unavailable to the average person. Recent improvements have included the completion of these large corridors underneath the venues, enabling cars and trucks to move around without encountering members of the public.
The group was also fascinated to learn how they manage the risk of multiple teams and contractors dismantling huge sets and stages in short periods of time, including the use of movable stages and overhead tracking. The collaborative work that has to done between the site teams and contractor teams is enormous. While the group was there, workers were in the process of removing the ice rink from Disney on Ice.
Due to the weather and size of the precinct (a total of 44 hectares), members could not visit all the venues, but there may be an opportunity to return in the future.
A huge thanks to our hosts Scott McMillan, Director of Safety, and Glen King, Operations Manager, for sharing their knowledge and providing an excellent tour for our members.
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Dr Narelle Beer has appeared regularly in SafetyAtWorkBlog articles. Her most recent public appearance was at the Australian Institute of Health and Safety national conference. No more is Dr Beer WorkSafe Victoria’s Executive Director Health and Safety.
In an email to WorkSafe staff, dated June 5 2024, CEO Joe Calafiore said:
“Narelle was appointed as our Executive Director, Health and Safety in 2021, bringing with her a wealth of expertise from her time in policing, both in Victoria and the Northern Territory. In her time at WorkSafe, Narelle has shown a genuine commitment to keeping Victorian workers safe and has been a passionate advocate for strong regulation that holds those who do not to account.
"On behalf of WorkSafe I thank Narelle for her contribution and wish her all the best for the future.
"With Narelle’s departure, and with the commencement of our new Executive Director of People and Culture Jane Barker in the near future, I have asked Sam Jenkin to lead the Health and Safety Business Unit for the next six months, starting today.”
I only ever met Dr Beer at her public appearances at conferences, seminars and other occupational health and safety events. I first saw her speaking at a lawyer’s breakfast seminar several years ago. Her presentation was a little uncertain, but it did not take long for her to become a polished public speaker to the extent that at last month’s national conference, her twenty-minute presentation was relaxed, confident and flawless.
Additional comment from Central Safety Group's Membership Co-ordinator:
We were honoured to have Dr Narelle Beer as special guest speaker for our 60th anniversary celebration at Parliament House in October 2022. At that time she committed to assisting CSG develop closer ties with WorkSafe Victoria and she was true to that promise.
WorkSafe Victoria is now one of our valued Corporate Members; they are represented at most of our events with several attendees and we have already had speakers from WorkSafe present to us. We join CEO Joe Calafiore in wishing Narelle every success in the future.
Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/
It is not often we hear directly from someone who has been involved in a workplace accident -to see that person sitting in a wheelchair tells you straight away that his will be a story with impact. Indeed it was when James Wood aka Woody presented to us on the 11th June.
Woody's presentation raised a few conflicting thoughts for me. For instance, he spoke incredibly well and, for someone who has never been a safety professional, he had some powerful safety messages to share. In fact, that is what he does now: share his story and messages in workplaces all over Australia. However, he began his career as a diesel mechanic and would give anything to have been able to stay in that job he loved. While we were fortunate to have Woody as our speaker, what a terrible cost for him to be in that position.
The other challenging aspect of the talk was Woody's emphasis on personal responsibility. He explained in detail the choices he made on the day of the accident that led to those life-changing events. When talking on the topic of choices, he included those in the workplace who may or may not speak up if they see something wrong. These are all valid points, but there was very little focus on systems failures and management responsibility.
What I found most valuable from Woody's story was the perspective of an injured worker - insights that anyone involved in Return to Work should also hear. There were so many mental as well as physical challenges, and they went well beyond himself. His accident affected his family, work mates and the community. It was eye-opening to learn of the many ramifications and emotions, and it certainly had an impact on the audience on the day.
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In May 2024, the Australian Institute of Health and Safety (AIHS) held its national conference in Melbourne. Day One consisted of two long seminars; Two and Three had the more traditional speaker/lecture format. Coinciding, and with a dotted commercial connection to the conference, was a trade show and exhibition, the Work Health and Safety Show. Both events had guest speakers, but one required a paid ticket and the other did not. What also distinguished each was that the conference selects its speakers through a mix of referrals, research, networking and speaker bureaus. The trade show primarily used exhibitors with some invited guests.
From what I saw, several of the psychosocial hazards sessions in the trade show had hundreds of attendees, with many standing in the aisles. The conference had around 500 delegates and one session directly on managing psychosocial hazards. I felt bad for the AIHS until an organisational psychology colleague at the trade show pointed out to me that some of the information provided there was outdated and incorrect.
Another difference between the two events was the quality control of the conference. The trade show offered opportunities to talk, present and promote, but that’s all it did. The conference was more cautious, and it is fair to take its information as more valid, because it selected its speakers.
The conference speakers were not all perfect. One I saw was atrocious and totally misread the audience. Some, as is a perennial risk with OHS conferences, were overly commercial and promotional even though the content was authoritative and valid.
So, which event offered more value? It is an unfair comparison, probably. Previous conferences have offered a much greater range of speakers, topics and themes. In some ways, the AIHS conference was a shell of its former, pre-covid self, but that seems to be the circumstance for all contemporary conferences. The Trade Show exposed a few new products, although apps and software seemed to dominate the exhibitors. If you needed OHS software, the trade show was good, but if your business is already locked into a software product, many exhibitors were irrelevant. The Trade Show speakers were okay within their own context. One panel on the construction industry and mental health with Professor Helen Lingard was very good. Lingard expanded on the research behind the topic much more in the conference.
The information provided during the conference was much more authoritative, with some speakers sparkling. I found Tanya Pelja of BGIS excellent. She presented several OHS initiatives that are only just starting in many Australian companies. She told us what worked for them.
If you can afford it, OHS conferences can offer good content. Trade Shows can offer new OHS things, gadgets and apps. A balance is available, but you must maintain scepticism and critical thinking in both event types.
Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/
Both the room and the zoom were packed to the rafters for this event. I think members were not only keen on the topic, but also appreciated the opportunity to interact directly with the Regulator. As one of our Cororate Members, WorkSafe Victoria is a valued partner of Central Safety Group and they were very generous is supplying 3 speakers for this event. They were Madelaine Barry, Program Officer for Psychological Health Programs; Darcy Cooper, Program Manager, WorkWell and Daniel McConville, a Psychosocial Inspector.
The elephant in the room was dealt with straight away: they know as much as we do about when the Psychological Regulations are due to see the light of day. However, they did re-assure us that the information they provided us was considered best practice and, therefore, would still be relevant once the Regulations are released.
They talked through the risk assessment approach and emphasised the need to address potential long-term impacts of this hazard in the workplace; as Madelaine said, "Yoga and a fruit bowl don't cut it!"
They acknowledged that the biggest barrier for many Employers is knowing where to start. This is where WorkSafe offers a range of practical guidance, including the WorkWell toolkit that provides a step-by-step approach. WorkSafe has also formed partnerships to run 13 projects aimed at testing their programs. Our presenters showed us a video (available in the power point) of one such initiative, dealing with shift workers in manufacturing and logistics, that was very interesting.
They concluded that these various projects did indeed validate WorkSafe's programs. Interestingly, even if a program were unsuccessful, the fact that an Employer invested in it still had a positive effect.
There was plenty of discussion after the presentation, especially in the room. Financial members can also view a number of past presentations related to this topic under Speakers in the Members Section (log in first). Just type "psychological" into the Search box.
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One of the consequences trotted out to justify occupational health and safety (OHS) management changes and initiatives is that an incident may result in damage to the company’s reputation or the social standing of the owner of the company or employer.
We have a legal system designed to identify whoever is to blame for the incident and allocate a penalty size, cost and type that a person would consider reasonable. However, the OHS legislation states that an employer MUST provide a safe and healthy work environment with an equivocation that the employer only has to do so as far as it is reasonably practicable.
Most of the community has accepted the punishment process of the legal system and, therefore, demands justice if workers are killed or injured. However, lawyers operate in a combative relationship where one aims to prove responsibility and the other aims to prove the innocence of the offender/employer or minimise the penalty that the Courts/judges allocate to the employer. There is an understanding that the outcome of this rigorous process will be fair and acceptable to most of the community. But this is how things operate in the abstract in OHS.
What this process seems to avoid, at least in the understanding of those outside the daily legal processes and institutions, is that employers do not always have the good or the health and safety of workers as their primary consideration, although our OHS legislation assumes employers are all and always good-hearted. Some employers are exploitative and do not always pay employees what they are worth. Workers may be contracted to work a certain number of hours each week for a certain amount of wages, but many employers do not enforce the contracted limit of hours, though they do enforce the amount of remuneration. Why should they, when workers “choose” to work for longer than they get paid, or longer than their health allows or longer than is tolerated by their families at home?
OHS would say that employers should enforce hours, because they are obliged to under the law to prevent physical and psychological harm, and unpaid overtime can generate mental ill health in those workers and increase the anxiety of relatives and families who rely on the workers' presence at home. Some employers claim that workers often choose to work longer than contracted to maximise their wages, to “provide for their family”, but wages usually remain at the same level, although some industries offer occasional overtime and special allowances.
One of the current challenges for OHS professionals and practitioners is to address psychosocial hazards at work, but perhaps a greater challenge is to understand the social elements of those hazards and of work more generally. It is necessary to consider the factors that contribute to work-related harm beyond those directly related to employment and take action to change those contributory factors. We should be asking questions such as:
Those OHS people who are tertiary qualified are likely to be familiar with the social determinants of health, but it is odd that we do not learn or discuss the social determinants of harm, of exploitation, of abuse, greed, disrespect and other relationships that we know harm workers and their families.
A core question we should all be asking is why workers are still dying at work from the same hazards that have always existed when, for almost 40 years in Victoria, employers have been required to provide working environments free from risks to the health and safety of workers. Something is fundamentally amiss and will not change until we start asking the right questions.
Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/
I have recently been invited to join the Advisory Committee of SuperFriend which has been collecting data relating to Workplace Mental Health for the last 9 years.
This resulted from an invitation via Dr Niki Ellis who is a Director on the SuperFriend Board and Chair, SuperFriend Expert Advisory Committee based in Sydney. Niki has been a leader in OHS in Australia including as the CEO of ISCRR (The Institute for Safety Compensation and Recovery Research) in Melbourne for many years.
There is a link to their survey analysis at https://www.superfriend.com.au/research/workplace-mental-health-statistics. The Thriving Workplace Survey involved 10,000 Australian workers who completed an online survey in August 2023. This survey contains more than 100 questions about factors known to influence mental health.
These have been collated into five domains – Connectedness, Safety, Leadership, Work Design and Capability. Results included that 38% of workers reported experiencing either high or very high levels of psychological distress in the four weeks prior to completing the survey. Almost one in three workers reported some symptoms of burnout, while one in 20 reported being “completely burned out”.
The research team have a range of projects that are providing inputs to Safe Work Australia, insurance companies and other research bodies in Australia and internationally. Have a look on their website for an interesting range of findings.
David C Caple AM
Director
David Caple and Associates P/L
