Speaker: Dominic Melling, Lead Organiser, OHS Team, Victorian Trades Hall Council
COVID-19 response in Victoria: A union perspective
This was a very informative session that consolidated many of the issues we learned about throughout the last 18 months that affect vulnerable workers. Dominic highlighted a number of areas where the essential workforce was exposed to risks. In particular, he spoke about aged care, the quarantine frontline, supply chain and meatworks. In the case of the latter, while WorkSafe acted quickly to produce guidance, some of it was not practical and needed to be modified.
Dominic and his team have developed an extensive program to assist Health & Safety Representatives (HSRs) and workers, with resources that are readily available via two of their websites: www.covidsafeworkplace.org and www.ohsrep.org.au. Resources include checklists for auditing and free 2-hour training sesssions.
Dominic also spoke about those who worked from home and how the rush to implement this new way of working has resulted in its own challenges. In our December 2020 presentation by David Caple, he went into this issue in greater detail and you can access it here (log in first)
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