Central Safety Group Melbourne

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

It was a packed event in May including many first-time attendees, all of us eager to hear Claire Nivarovich. We were rewarded with a very interesting and practical presentation.

WorkSafe statistics show that only 54% of workers have returned to work 6 months after mental injury; by 2 years, 38% still have not returned to work. They also show that mental injury claims have been increasing steadily across all workplaces over the last 4 years.

As a result WorkSafe has been targeting initiatives to assist vulnerable workers and employers. These range from reducing the time to asses claims and creating videos and guidance notes to developing an online toolkit: Workwell Toolkit

Claire guided us through the toolkit, showing us how a dashboard can be tailored to the user and how to access a wealth of information. There are resources to deal with a wide range of situations; these include ways to implement prevention practices in your workplace. Claire's unit did a road test of the kit to ensure it offers practical and easily accessible advice.

Claire ended her talk with a call to action to those present: they are keen to receive feedback from employers, so give the toolkit a go!

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Staff safety and difficult customer interactions

A large audience was fascinated by Kristen Richardson's presentation that contained very useful information about dealing with difficult customers. Ineterestingly, the majority of difficult customer interactions arises from the trauma of delivering hard messages that have life changing impacts on customers. However, the issue of customer aggression was the primary focus of Kristen's presentation and the most relevant to the CSG audience.

In the past the bank’s safety strategy was focussed on the risk of robberies, which informed both the design of branches and the staff's actions. Nowadays incidents of robberies have decreased dramatically and so the focus has needed to shift accordingly. The bank’s strategy has developed to become multi-faceted and flexible to deal with a range of scenarios.

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Date & Time: Tuesday 9 April at 12:00pm

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE:
Venue: Xchanging, Level 10, 390 La Trobe Street, Melbourne (near Queen Street).

Managing Inappropriate Customer Behaviour

Kristen Richardson, Wellbeing and Safety Business Partner Team Leader, ANZ.

Staff safety and difficult customer interactions
Many businesses have seen an upsurge in staff impacted by difficult customer interactions that may place them at risk of a physical or psychosocial illness.

This has particularly been the case in the banking industry and is varied across customer contact, whether it is face-to-face or telephone interactions.

ANZ Bank has a strategy in place to keep their staff safe from this risk and this will be presented by Kristen Richardson, Wellbeing and Safety Business Partner Team Leader at ANZ, at a lunchtime presentation on 9 April.

The strategy looks at all aspects of staff safety – physical, psychosocial and most importantly the leadership culture shift required to enable this strategy to be successful. This strategy has been developed using external consultancy expertise and research across other industries. Read more...

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

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An explosive hazard hidden in plain sight

Through his presentation, Richard Greenwood opened our eyes about the hazards associated with combustible dust. Such hazards can slip under the radar, because these dusts are not classified as dangerous goods and therefore are not covered by any current chemical legislation. Examples include flour, coal dust, milk powder, sugar and plastics, which are potentially present in a huge number of workplaces, and yet there is poor workplace recognition of the hazard.

There is a complex set of circumstances that can lead to an incident, as Richard explained through his Explosion Pentagon that goes beyond the standard Fire Triangle. He demonstrated this via a video about an aluminium factory in the USA before then discussing an incident in Campbellfield, Victoria, where two workers were injured while undertaking routine maintenance.

Richard concluded by providing a number of takeaway messages, including how to address deficiencies in hot work permits, methods of housekeeping and design solutions.

As always, the presentation stimulated quite a bit of discussion; member Paul Burggraaf shared his knowledge and experience in working with plastic dust.

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

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE:
Venue: DXC Technology Level 19 (Board Room 1), 360 Collins Street, Melbourne.

An Explosive Hazard Hidden in Plain Sight

Richard Greenwood, RG Chemical Safety.

Combustible dust can be a hidden chemical hazard in workshops, factories, storage facilities and many other places. Because it’s not classified as a hazardous substance or as dangerous goods, it is often ignored in workplace procedures and risk control. The significance of this will be discussed by chemical hazards expert Richard Greenwood in a lunchtime presentation to Central Safety Group on 12 March.
The consequences of not recognising the presence of combustible dust were dramatically demonstrated recently when two workers doing routine maintenance were seriously injured in a workplace explosion in Victoria. The result was an Enforceable Undertaking for the company involved, including preparation of basic workplace training materials and a video for awareness of the hazard. Richard will talk about this case as part of its compliance with WorkSafe’s Enforceable Undertaking.
He will explain how fine combustible dusts are likely to form and potentially explode when disturbed in an enclosed space. He will also discuss how to detect and manage risks associated with this... Read More

.The presentation will be followed by a brief Annual General Meeting of CSG, to which all Financial Members are invited to attend.

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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