News & Views
OHS Reps Conference 2007
Annual OHS Reps Conference a Great Success
The annual VTHC OHS Reps' Conference on 24 October at the Convention Centre, part of WorkSafe's OHS Week (22-26 October 2007), has again been a huge success. It continues to be the largest meeting of OHS reps in the world.
Under the theme “OHS – Unfinished Business” the all-day Conference addressed many issues affecting how to achieve the best OHS standards possible.
Ann Taylor, VTHC President, opened the conference. VTHC Secretary, Brian Boyd and John Merritt, Executive Director of Worksafe, also spoke. Brian Boyd told the conference: “There is no acceptable number of deaths; there is no good reason to finish the day worse than how you started; accidents do not happen; accidents should not be part of life in the workplace; no one sets out to hurt themselves and workers wouldn’t be stressed unless there was something causing them stress in the first place.
“Let's be clear on a couple of things, workers have a right to a safe and healthy work environment, a safe way of doing work; workers have a right to have a say in their own health, safety and welfare; workers have a right to be represented on any matter that affects them.
“Better terms and conditions are best achieved by working together collectively.”
The Charter of OHS, Compensation and Rehabilitation Rights was distributed to every OHS rep. The reps at the Conference were asked to take back into their respective workplaces the material and information learnt so as to spread the OHS message as widely as possible.
Another highlight was VWA OHS Annual Awards night (23/10) that saw Tarek Souied (Woolworths) win the OHS Rep of the year out of several finalists
The week is sponsored by the Victorian WorkCover authority (WorkSafe) and included a range of events, meetings and forums across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
From the VTHC website
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Brian Boyd - 2007 presentation
This is the full text of the conference presentation given by Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary. Attached are the OHS Charter and Charter petition. [read more] -
John Merritt - Executive Director WorkSafe
John Merritt, Executive Director of WorkSafe Victoria, spoke about the past ten years in Victoria, and the targets WorkSafe has set itself. He also spoke about what the VWA is doing to support OHS reps. [read more] -
Panel Discussion:
After the key note addresses and morning tea, there was a panel discussion entitled "Difference of Opinion". The panel included representatives from unions, employer groups, OHS professionals and WorkSafe. [read more] -
Negotiating around OHS/Communicating with members
Another of the workshops held in the afternoon gave reps the opportunity to explore how to improve their negotiation and communications skills. Read the summary and download some of the materials [read more] -
Fatigue
OHS Reps are finding that shift lengths, rostering arrangements and workloads are increasing the level of fatigue in workplaces. Fatigue is a key contributor to impairment. OHS Reps heard about what the transport industry is doing to tackle the problem as well as from an expert in the area and WorkSafe Victoria.
[read more] -
Impairment - Drugs and Alcohol
Reps attending this workshop had the opportunity to hear from a number of speakers on the issues of impairment, drugs and alcohol and testing.
[read more] -
Zero Occupational Cancer Workshop
An afternoon workshop at the 2007 OHS reps conference, preparing the international union campaign for 2008: Zero Occupational Cancer.
[read more]