CSG Posts
Central Safety Group's AGM on the 9th February 2021 was action-packed! (Well, as much as an AGM can be, that is.)
A motion to commence the process of becoming an Incorporated Association was passed, and a sub-committee has been formed to facilitate this. It's expected to take about 6 months to complete the process. The main advantages of this move are to establish a clear structure for the group as well as to protect individual members from legal liability.
Our long-serving President Alan Matthews formally resigned from the position (see the separate blog entry about this), and Vice-President Nan Austin was duly elected as his replacement. Congratulations Nan!
Due to the move to becoming an Incorporated Association, it was decided not to fill the role of Vice-President at the moment, nor to alter the rest of the make-up of the committee. The review of our group and roles within it means that the scope of the Executive roles in particular could change and we want to clarify those before asking anyone to put up their hands to join the committee.
Finally, two new Life Members were appointed at the AGM. Our Secretary Jane Loudon was the first of these. In 2014 when our then secretary John Knowles left the group suddenly due to ill health, Jane became our saviour by stepping into the role immediately without a second thought. She has since established herself as an invaluable member of the committee, particularly in her work securing a high calibre of speakers for our monthly meetings.
The other new Life Member is Marina Milankovic, who has been a committee member since 2006, served as Treasurer from 2008-2015 and, since 2016, has been Membeship Secretary. During the challenges of 2020 she played an important part behind the scenes to ensure that CSG could adapt to the changing situation.
To view the full list (and smiling faces) of our committee and Life Members, go to the About Us section of the website here.
To view the AGM minutes, President's report and Treasurer's report, go here (login required).
ISO 45003:2021: Introducing the first global standard for managing psychosocial risks
CSG members may be interested in ISO 45003: Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — managing psychosocial risks. It was published in June 2021 and is the first globally agreed standard for psychological injury prevention. The ISO framework has been applied so this standard aligns with the structure of ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety management systems. However, the new standard offers more specific psychosocial risk guidance to address the many areas that can impact a worker’s psychological health, including ineffective communication, excessive pressure, leadership, and negative or toxic organisational culture.
The ISO resource includes a course that takes you through the standard structure to demonstrate the requirements in each section. You can read the entire standard online, but payment is required if you want a hard copy. I am currently doing the course and find it very systems-focused. I love an integrated systems approach so have found the demonstrated overlay onto ISO45001 a sensible approach.
As Worksafe Victoria is currently considering the addition of psychological hazards into the OHS Regulations 2017, this is your opportunity to address the three psychological hazards identified in the standard now. These hazards are: how work is organised, social factors at work and the work environment (equipment and tasks). The ISO resources offers a further online course offering practical guidance on how to conduct a psychosocial risk assessment.
Go to www.45003.org to access:
(1) free ISO 45003 Foundations Course that provides a comprehensive overview to get you across the standard quickly for incorporation within your occupational health and safety management system
(2) free live panel discussion on 4 August 2021 where they will discuss current psychosocial risk assessment practice, hosted by the Psych Health and Safety Podcast
(3) free course to teach you how to meet your legal obligations where they exist and how to address important requirements of ISO 45003:2021
We welcome your thoughts on this emerging workplace issue as Victorian employers will have a wide range of capacities to manage this workplace hazard.
Normally on the 2nd Tuesday of December we would be gathering together at Parliament House for our annual Christmas lunch. While it was disappointing not to be able to do that this year, we were thrilled to have Professor David Caple present to us instead. Having such an engaging and high-calibre speaker was a ray of sunshine at the end of a gloomy year.
Amongst some research results David shared with us, it was interesting to learn that in some states, which have been opened up for a while, there is still a relatively low percentage of people returning to the office. It is clear that many people have relished the opportunity to work from home; however, the presentation and subsequent discussion highlighted the physical and psychological risks associated with this. David provided a number of links to useful resources for dealing with this delicate balance between working from home and returning to the office.
Thank you, David, for ensuring we ended the year on a high!
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Every day lately there seems to be yet another report in the news about cyber crime, so Michael Connory's presentation to us, at our inaugural zoom meeting, could not have been more timely.
It was fascinating, and somewhat disconcerting, as he showed us on-screen some of the resources to track cyber crime in real time, not to mention the numerous ways we make ourselves vulnerable to attacks. This can have devastating consequences for us personally as well as for our organisations. Michael also guided us through ways to check if our passwords have been breached and other useful tools. It was a real eye-opener!
There is a lot of talk at the moment about guarding against complacency with mask-wearing; this could just as easily be a metaphor for our web safety: don't be complacent and do place barriers against potential breaches.
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Central Safety Group's inaugural zoom meeting Tuesday November 17, 2020
Yes, we have launched ourselves into the new reality and joined the world-wide trend of remote meetings. Indeed our first offering couldn't be more appropriate: Michael Connory of CyberCertified will be speaking to us about the prevalence of cyber crime that has arisen while so many people are working from home and shopping online. He will share some invaluable advice about how we can improve our web safety.
While we look forward to physical meetings again at some point next year, we're excited about trying out this new technology for delivering our presentations, especially as its convenience has the potential to add extra value to your membership.
All details of the meeting are on the website
Meeting details
There was keen interest from the large turnout at Mary Kikas’ lunchtime talk on 11 February where she presented a case study on rebuilding safety culture.
Mary described the process and steps she implemented to address workplace risk in the context of hazardous manual handling and fatigue management. She found an important key to success was being hands-on and practical, as well as consulting with the workforce. This helped restore a positive workplace culture in an organisation where employee job satisfaction and trust had fallen after significant change following a series of redundancies.
A highlight of the presentation was how open she was about the obstacles and setbacks, as well as the approaches she took to dealing with these. The message was there’s no quick and easy way to build safety culture, as it needs to be multifaceted and contextually relevant to the organisation, but hard work where you involve all levels of the company can get results.
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At Central Safety Group's AGM in February 2020 there were a few changes made to the committee.
Phil Kamay stepped down as Vice-President. As a Life Member of the group, Phil has made a significant contribution over many years and in several capacities, including as Treasurer from 1994 to 2007, and as the organiser of many successful Christmas functions. Phil has made a "sea change" and we wish him all the best in his new life and endeavours.
Long-time member Nan Austin returned from New Zealand last year, rejoined CSG and put her hand up to join the committee this year. At the AGM she was duly elected as our new Vice-President. Thank you, Nan, for taking on this important role.
Ordinary committee member Greg Splatt has also stepped down and we thank him for his past contributions. Meanwhile, we have a new committee member, Adrian Glaubert. He comes with experience as an office bearer and in marketing and fundraising for other committees. Welcome aboard, Adrian!
To view the full list (and smiling faces) of our committee, go to the About Us section of the website here.
What a timely presentation we had at our March meeting! With the current outbreak of bizarre behaviour from shoppers brawling over toilet paper, it is the workforce of young people at the front line, in supermarkets and retail outlets like The Reject Shop, that are bearing the brunt.
Kenn Rogers' information-packed presentation gave real insight into the kinds of behaviours his staff has to deal with at normal times as well as in these peculiar ones. He was determined to turn this around and, in conjunction with Griffith University in Queensland and icare NSW, The Reject Shop took part in a pilot program called 'Respect and Resilience'.
The program has already had a positive impact on the workforce who took part in the pilot, so now it can be expanded throughout the organisation. Key elements include a range of training, workplace modifications and developing a peer-to-peer network. Kenn handed around an example of a weekly diary that was developed: a user-friendly tool for workers to record incidents and interactions. This has been used both to inform aspects of the initial program and to modify it during regular reviews.
This excellent presentation was very well received by a good turn-out of members and non-members alike.
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Central Safety Group's annual Christmas networking lunch on Tuesday 10 December 2019 was very popular once again. Along with the many members in attendance, it was great to see some new faces and a few of our speakers from 2019.
For the third year in a row, the event was held in the dining room at Parliament House Victoria, where we all enjoyed a delicious meal featuring seasonal Victorian
produce. Best of all we had the dining room to ourselves, which was conducive to excellent conversation and a relaxed atmosphere.
The occasion was also an opportunity to reflect on the past year. While the group faced a few challenges during 2019 - including not having a permanent meeting place - we were fortunate to have a great line-up of speakers and we look forward to more of the same next year.
We wish all of our members and friends a wonderful 2020 and we look forward to seeing you at our meetings.
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CSG is thrilled to welcome back long-time member Nan Austin, who recently returned from a three-year stint as Health & Safety Manager at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. Judging by her presentation to the group in November, Nan gained a great depth of knowledge from her time across the Tasman.
One of the things that stood out for me is the fact that New Zealand has only had OHS legislation since 2015. This came about after the Pike River Mine disaster of 2010; sadly the bodies of the 28 men who died have still not been recovered. While the legislation is based very much on what we have in Australia, Nan pointed out a number of shortcomings with it. In particular, the way that the accident compensation scheme is set up means that there are many gaps in useful data.
However, Nan did note that the situation has begun to turn around since a major review was commenced in 2018. Of particular interest to CSG members is the fact that there is a big demand for capable health & safety practitioners, many of whom are coming from Australia. As Nan said, Aussies can practically step off the plane and start working!
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Every now & then we have a speaker who challenges our traditional ways of thinking and how refreshing that is! Dr David Provan was just such a speaker at our October meeting.
He described safety clutter as processes and activities organisations undertake that do not actually add value to safety, but they are loath to let go of them. He asked for a show of hands to see if anyone could identfy any such activities in their own workplaces and, clearly, people were reluctant to admit such a thing. However, by the end of the presentaton, we understood exactly what he meant and could relate much of what he said to our own workplaces. David gave many examples to illustrate his thesis and to help us "suspend disbelief" in the efficacy of certain practices. He even presented the controversial notion, obtained from research he conducted with Griffith University, that a risk assessment is mostly a social exercise that merely re-confirms people's beliefs.
He outlined a number of negative consequences that can arise from such safety clutter, but also suggested ways of dealing with it. He also posited the interesting concept that more uncertainity can lead to more caution, which in turn leads to more safety.
David also alerted us to a new weekly podcast by him and his fellow researcher from the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University, Dr Drew Rae. Called The Safety of Work, each week they will look at a different item of the latest safety research and provide practical management tips. To learn more, go to safetyofwork.com
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It was a packed room as we all listened with interest at the findings from a range of research that covered the health effects of shift work, factors that contribute to impairment as well as the effects of sleep inertia.
We could relate to the findings as they do not apply just to shift workers, but to many people who share some of the same characteristics in their daily life. How many of us stay up late on our computers or participate in other activities that affect our sleep? The Turner Institute's and CRC's research -via controlled laboratory tests as well as analysing real-life data -shows us the risks we are exposing ouselves to by doing this. While the natural biological rhythm varies amongst individuals, it can never truly adjust to working through the night when we really should be asleep.
It is not all "doom and gloom", though, as Tracey also presented a range of strategies for alleviating the harmful effects of shift work and fatigue.
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The group is lucky to have an annual presentation from renowned ergonomist Professor David Caple, who is always such an engaging speaker as he shares the latest developments in his field of study.
This month he focussed on 2 Australian Standards that deal with workstations and chairs, both of which bear little relevance to today's ways of working in offices. One is 22 years old, so it is easy to see how workplace changes have moved so far ahead of its recommendations. The other, however, was revised in 2018 and yet it contains recommendations that do not relate to any data that David is aware of. It is also silent on the issue of dual and multiple screens, which has become very common. In fact, David asked for a show of hands in the room to see how many people work with dual monitors and the majority of attendants put up their hands.
David also mentioned an initiative of La Trobe University’s Centre for Ergonomics and Human Factors, the APHIRM toolkit (A Participative Hazard Identification and Risk Management toolkit). There will be a workshop on it for Health & Safety Professionals at the university’s city campus on November 14th. For details & bookings, visit www.aphirm.org.au
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In July we were lucky once again to have a speaker who is so obviously passionate about the work they do to make a real difference in health and safety. Michael Carley has been working with Villa Maria Catholic Homes (VMCH) for just over a year, so he freely admits that there is still a long way to go to improve their safe systems of work -many of us can identify with that! However, the progress made so far inspires him to continue in what he described as a very fufilling sector in which to work.
Aged care is a growth industry, but it also presents many challenges. The most common risks that he outlined have also come to light during the current Royal Commission into the sector, so it was a very timely presentation.
Michael noted that residents are coming in at later stages of life when they need a higher level of care. Another challenge is that the average age of the workforce is 55 and comes from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The greatest risks arise from inadequate training and competency, but Michael's main message was to "be courageous in addressing risks", which includes thinking laterally about how to address them. He outlined a number of innovative solutions he and VMCH have made to date and he looks forward to continue making improvements.
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