Central Safety Group Melbourne

Rebuilding safety culture – a case study

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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Central Safety Group committee news

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.

Customer abuse: The Reject Shop’s frontline solutions

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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Customer Abuse: The Reject Shop’s Frontline Solutions

Date & Time: Tuesday 10 March at 12:00pm

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE:

Venue: Venue: DXC Technology, Level 19 (Board Room 1), 360 Collins Street, Melbourne
(between Queen & Elizabeth Streets).

Customer abuse: The Reject Shop’s frontline solutions

Customer abuse is a growing problem in the retail industry that can take a heavy toll on workers’ confidence and wellbeing. </ br> Of the Reject Shop’s 6,000 team members, a majority are part-time and 60% are under the age of 25. This means many are inexperienced and particularly vulnerable when faced with customer aggression.</ br> Kenn Rogers, Safety Team Leader of the Reject Shop, will give a lunchtime presentation on 10 March 2020... Read More

Note: When booking for the Event, please ensure you select the March Meeting from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP to this meeting.

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Networking at Parliament House

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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OHS lessons from NZ

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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Safety Shake-up Across The Tasman

Date & Time: Tuesday 12 November at 12:00pm

Venue: DXC Technology, Level 19 (Board Room 1), 360 Collins Street, Melbourne
(Between Queen & Elizabeth Street).

Safety Shake-up Across The Tasman

Nan Austin.

The death of 28 miners in an underground explosion at New Zealand’s Pike River Coal Mine nine years ago led to anger, accusations and the call for a major inquiry into the country’s safety laws. The result was a major re-engineering of New Zealand’s safety systems with the introduction of the new Health and Safety Work Act in 2016.
Nan Austin will give a first-hand account of the safety reforms in New Zealand, and how the new system is working out, at Central Safety Group's lunchtime meeting on 12 November... Read More

Note: When booking for the Event, please ensure you select the November Meeting from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP to this meeting.

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OHS clutter & what to do about it

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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The real impact of shift work and workplace fatigue

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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When workplace changes outpace OHS Standards

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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