Central Safety Group Melbourne

Rebuilding Safety Culture - a case study

Date & Time: Tuesday 11 February at 12:00pm

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE:

Venue: Venue: Room B411 – Level 4, CAE building, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
(Between Swanston & Elizabeth Streets).

Rebuilding safety culture – a case study

Safety culture: pulling it all together – a case study When employee morale, trust and job satisfaction plummet in the wake of major changes, how do you restore a strong safety culture? Mary Kikas faced that exact challenge when asked to help the Health and Safety team of a utilities company that had undergone a significant change management process and redundancies. She will outline what happened in a presentation to the Central Safety Group at its first lunchtime meeting for the year on Tuesday 11 February 2020.... Read More

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

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When Workplace Changes Outpace OHS Standards

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

Venue: DXC Technology, Level 19 (Board Room 2), 360 Collins Street, Melbourne
(Between Queen & Elizabeth Street).

When Workplace Changes Outpace OHS Standards

Professor David Caple, OHS Consultant and Adjunct Professor, Centre for Ergonimics & Human Factors, LaTrobe University.

More and more jobs today require working on mobile devices including laptops, Surface Pros and tablets. Some workplaces ‘dock’ these with monitors and keyboards and others are being used as the primary input device. When it comes to assessing ergonomic risks linked to this, compliance is measured by long-established OHS Codes and Australian Standards.
But how relevant and effective are the current Standards for white collar workplaces where agile work is changing the way we work? Professor David Caple will discuss this issue in a lunchtime presentation to Central Safety Group on 10 September... Read More

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

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Date & Time: Tuesday 13 August at 12:00pm

The Real Impact of Shift Work

Dr Tracey Sletten, Research Fellow at CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity & Monash University.
Details coming soon

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

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Date & Time: Tuesday 11 June at 12:00pm

Safety lapses and real life consequences

Speakers: Rohan Sykes, Phoenix Workplace Safety

Rohan Sykes was a healthy, active young family man when he suffered an horrific workplace injury that caused severe burns to 35% of his body. He was seriously injured by exposure to radiant heat from molten glass, despite wearing full PPE and following procedures. Read more...

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

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Date & Time: Tuesday 14 May at 12:00pm

Prevention of mental injury at work – where can employers best direct their efforts?

Claire Nivarovich, Director Mental Health Programs, WorkSafe Victoria

Work-related mental injury is the second most common cause of workers' compensation claims in Australia, and accounts for around 13% of workers' compensation claims in Victoria.
What can employers do to prevent mental injury in their workplace? Where can they best direct their efforts?
Claire Nivarovich, Director Mental Health Programs, WorkSafe Victoria, spoke about this topic in a lunchtime presentation on 14 May. Read more...

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

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Safety and the aged care sector

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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Safety lapses and real life consequences

We have had many speakers with a wealth of knowledge derived from their work as OHS managers, consultants and practitioners, but in June we had the rare opportunity to hear about the first-hand experience of someone who has been seriosly injured in an industrial accident.

Rohan Sykes gave a graphic and harrowing presentation on an industrial accident that left him with burns to 35% of his body and was the result of his protective clothing catching fire from close proximity to molten glass.

As a result of his injuries, he had to learn to walk and talk again and the impact on his wife, children and family was immense. Apart from the physical injuries, the mental impacts were just as great for all involved.

After his recovery Rohan founded Phoenix Workplace Safety with a mission to encourage industrial workplaces and individuals to completely re-think the way they approach safety.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide the presentation from this meeting. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on any of our great speakers, put the second Tuesday of the month in your calendar and come along to our meetings.

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Date & Time: Tuesday 11 July at 12:00pm

OHS in the Aged Care Industry

Michael Carley, Manager, Safety and Risk at Villa Maria Catholic Homes.

The challenges of safety in the aged care & disability sectors. The aged care and disability sectors are among the fastest growing sectors in Australia. Employment in this area has exploded, growing 36% in the past five years – three times the rate of growth across all other occupations. The particular OHS challenges for these industries will be discussed by Michael Carley, Safety and Risk, Villa Maria Catholic Homes, on Tuesday, 9 July at the Central Safety Group lunchtime meeting. Michael will talk about the common hazards and risks in safety management in these sectors. He will also discuss current trends, gaps and recommended solutions. Read more...

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

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Further Reading

  At our May meeting, Life Member Kevin Jones alerted us to 5 new publications. One title is quite timely, considering the topic for the May meeting: The Happiness Industry. Other books include the story of the Esso Longford disaster aftermath and a look at the controversy surrounding the health implications of using a very popular weed killer. The other two titles refer to laws and regulations.

Links to all of the books are in the Further Reading section of The Vault

Thanks to Life Member Kevin Jones (https://safetyatworkblog.com/) for bringing these to our attention.

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   Presentations from 2010-2017:
Gaps in these years have been filled and, where presentations were unavailable, detailed summaries are provided.

   Minutes from meetings 2010-2017: These are now up-to-date, including all AGMs.  The exception is the second half of 2014 arsing from the sudden departure due to ill health of our esteemed Secretary John Knowles, (who sadly passed away in January 2015).

   Newsletters from 2000-2006: You will find these in The Vault. They were written by Kevin Jones when he was Secretary of the group during that period and they make excellent reading.

Thanks to Life Member Kevin Jones (https://safetyatworkblog.com/) for providing some of the archival material, in particular Safety Central Newsletters.  A special thanks to Marina Milankovic for her tireless efforts in sourcing and compiling all the archival material, now available to members.

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