SafetyNet JOURNAL
SafetyNet Journal 129
Issue 129 - SafetyNet 129
Welcome to SafetyNet 129 – your source for all the latest OHS news from Victoria, Australia and the world. Feel free to pass this news on to your fellow workers and other reps.
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Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events
Union News
Activities for reps
A new way ahead on OHS under Labor
Unions are hailing the election of the new Labor government as providing a way forward on OHS. Occupational Health and Safety matters are likely to have a higher profile under the new government according to the ACTU. Among the key challenges are the harmonising of state OHS and efforts to repair the relationship between the Commonwealth and the states. ACTU OHS project officer Steve Mullins said that unions support the ALP’s policy on national harmonisation of OHS as the way forward.
Unions are seeking a new independent tripartite statutory body on OHS and compensation to make decisions separate from government. This would replace the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC). Victorian Trades Hall Council WorkCover liason officer, Jarrod Moran says it is also a historic opportunity to recast workers compensation in Australia.
“The union movement has a clear policy on what the compensation system should look like. The election of the Rudd Government will immediately stop the Comcare scam where John Howard was allowing his mates to escape to the federal system and cut workers compensation benefits.”
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) says it is comfortable with the Rudd Government’s commitment to a new approach so long as business had an opportunity to participate.
ETU December OHS Newsletter
The
ETU December OHS newsletter is out now and will be online soon. Features articles on ‘Tiger Tails’ and a report of a serious incident where an electrician was electrocuted.
APHEDA Christmas cards online
Buy Christmas cards that help improve international workers conditions: APHEDA cards and gifts now online: Union Aid Abroad’s 2007 Festive Season cards and gifts are now available to purchase online. Send a message of hope and peace to family and friends and also help make life fair for families and communities in developing countries by clicking here.
NZ: Worker participation key to OHS improvements
New Zealand unions have called for greater worker participation in health and safety following the release of the NZ government’s Workplace Health and Safety Strategy second progress report. NZCTU secretary Carol Beaumont says the report shows that the 18,000 health and safety reps elected under the Health and Safety in Employment Act are an important step in creating safer workplaces and reducing the cost to the whole country of workplace fatalities, illness and injuries.
Risks 333
European report identifies biological threats to workers
A new report by the European Risk Observatory identifies emerging biological risks that are most likely to affect workers in the European Union. The report focuses on a number of areas of concern, particularly for farmers, health care workers and people in waste treatment industries.
The report’s authors note an increasing risk of communicable diseases such as SARS, avian flu or Dengue and highlight the limited knowledge and poor assessment of biological risks in many workplaces and industries. The report emphasises the importance of taking a global and multidisciplinary approach involving occupational safety and health, public health, environmental protection and food safety.
Risk Observatory: New biological threats in European working environment
More info on
Biological
and
Infectious disease
hazards on site.
Asbestos news
Bernie Banton honoured at State funeral
Bernie Banton has died. The tireless anti-asbestos campaigner passed away peacefully in his sleep at 1am Tuesday December 27, 2007. He was 61.
Bernie Banton was honoured with a State funeral at Sydney's Acer Arena on Wednesday 5 December, which over 2000 people attended.
At the funeral, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that Mr Banton had become a symbol of basic human decency. "Bernie Banton was a great Australian hero," Mr Rudd told the mourners. "A hero in an age when we had all become so cynical that we didn't believe there could be heroes. He was an Australian hero with an extraordinary heart who lived an extraordinary life.”
Prime Minister Rudd hailed also saluted the work Bernie Banton did with the trade union movement in bringing justice to ordinary people.
Greg Combet, previously Secretary of the ACTU and now a Labor member of parliament, who worked with Mr Banton in the James Hardie compensation campaign, said that, without him, the company might not have been brought to account.
Read more
Sign
ACTU online condolences book
Unions honour Bernie Banton, call for action on asbestos
The executives of the VTHC and ACTU have honoured the passing of Bernie Banton and called for immediate action from the Rudd Labor Government to create a nationally consistent strategy to identify and remove asbestos as well as deliver a cure for present and future sufferers and just compensation. Australia has the highest known rate of mesothelioma sufferers in the world. The only known cause of this cancer is inhalation of asbestos fibres.
The VTHC has urged the government to:
- Adequately fund the Mesothelioma Register through the ACCC;
- increase funding for research into early detection, treatment and cure of asbestos related diseases, as well as funding for social healing initiatives in communities blighted by asbestos related diseases;
- audit all residential, community and workplaces properties to identify the presence and condition of asbestos;
- establish a national secretariat that audits all current actions or programs at local, state and federal level regarding information, identification, elimination and disposal of asbestos and asbestos contaminated products;
- and,establish a national OHS initiative that reviews all OHS and compensation laws relating to asbestos, including compliance activities.
Latest GARDS newsletter online
Check out the latest GARDS newsletter which includes stories on Asbestos Awareness Week, upcoming events and new partnerships.
Canadian asbestos exports increase
Canada’s recalcitrant asbestos industry has been on a major sales drive which has seen exports to some countries increase dramatically. Sales to Brazil jumped by 300% in 2007 while exports to the Domenican Republic were up by 69%. The Canadian government and industry justify the exports by saying that there is “controlled use” of Canadian asbestos in developing countries. Canada has long been criticised for undermining international efforts to ban asbestos.
Risks 333
Asbestos awareness
International Ban Asbesto Secretariat
US: Asbestos found in range of household products
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), a US organisation dedicated to serving as the voice of asbestos victims, has unveiled research showing evidence of asbestos in some everyday household products including children’s toys.
The ADAO conducted tests on hundreds of suspect products available in the US and warned that there is an unacceptable risk from many of those examined.
Source: ADAO media release
In-depth article in
Seattle Post Intelligencer
.
New resource for reps from the Chronic Illness Alliance
Unfortunately many reps will know workers who will contract a chronic illness, either through work-related exposures or not. The Chronic Illness Alliance has 39 member organisations, both state and national and aims to build a better focus in health policy and health services for all people with chronic illnesses through education and research projects. The Chronic Illness Alliance has a set up a website, WorkWelfareWills, a plain English web guide to legal issues around health and life changes. It was produced for use in Victoria only as some of the laws will be different in other states of Australia.
Cancer resource on YouTube
Top UK toxicologist Professor Vyvyan Howard has taken awareness raising on occupational and environmental cancer out to the YouTube generation. Two video clips warn that what you breathe, swallow and touch at work and where you live can seriously affect your chances of developing cancer - and this risk has increased dramatically as a consequence of industrialisation.
Read more about the global union zero cancer campaign .
Research
WHO report links night shift with cancer
A report in the Lancet says the World Health Organisation is moving to classify night shift work as a “Group 2A - probable carcinogen” putting it in the same category as ultraviolet radiation and diesel exhaust. Shiftwork has become increasingly common with about 20% of workers in developed countries employed in sectors reliant upon the practice.
Recent research suggests that women who work at night are more prone to breast cancer and men have a higher rate of prostate cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of WHO says the listing as a probable carcinogen will affect millions of people worldwide.
The same report lists painting as “Group 1 - carcinogenic to humans” and firefighting as a “Group 2B - possible carcinogen”. Studies cited in the report show that painters consistently have small but significant increases in the risk of lung cancer and bladder cancer and increased levels of genetic damage.
IARC media release
WorkSafe News
A worker dies in grain silo following repeated OHS breaches
A farm worker died after becoming submerged in canola seed while working in a grain silo, apparently while trying to clear a blockage. The accident happened on Wednesday 5 December in Hamilton in Western Victoria.
Tragically, the company that owns the silo is GrainCorp Operations Group, which was convicted and fined twice this year for OHS breaches. The incidents, one in March 2005 and another in January 2006, both involved serious injuries and were found to have been easily preventable.
WorkSafe is investigating how the accident occurred and whether the man’s harness broke. WorkSafe Executive Director, John Merritt, said it was "clearly an issue of concern" that the company had already been fined twice in 2007.
Silos are classified as confined spaces and as such are highly hazardous.
More on
Confined Spaces and Poorly Ventilated Areas
Manufacturing safety campaign launched in east
WorkSafe Victoria has launched a manufacturing safety campaign targeting the need to plan and supervise workers involved with maintenance, repair, installation, servicing and cleaning of machines. This project will include targeted workplace inspections across the eastern and south-eastern suburbs and workshops conducted across the state early next year. A briefing on the project will be held on 12 December at Rowville.
More
information and registration
.
National campaign on falls prevention in construction
Workplace health and safety regulators across Australia and New Zealand will join forces to target falls prevention in the construction industry with particular focus on small and medium-sized projects.
Site inspections will be carried out in February and March next year as part of the project. Falls prevention is a priority focus area for Australia’s workplace safety authorities as they are the single-biggest cause of workplace deaths in the construction industry. More info on falls .
Construction fatality report released
WorkSafe inspectors attended incident where an unsecured precast brace became unstable and fell, fatally injuring a worker.
Their preliminary report [pdf] found that bolts connecting the top of over 30 braces to the panels at the site had been removed on the day prior to the incident. The report found that the bottom braces remained attached until the next day, despite recommendations that they should always be removed first and under supervision.
Colac’s got the message about workplace safety.
WorkSafe inspectors visited 127 businesses in Colac during the week-long Safe Towns campaign. Inspectors issued 83 improvement notices, a little less than most other areas visited through the program. Colac workplaces will again be visited by WorkSafe inspectors in January to follow up on the improvement notices issued during the recent project.
WorkSafe media release
New Australian website for compensation authorities
The Heads of Workers' Compensation Authorities - Australian and New Zealand (HWCA) has a new website.
This website will be an important source of information given the move to harmonisation.
SA government accepts changes to OHS Act
New changes to the SA OHS Act will include trebling of fines for OHS offences committed by companies or public sector agencies. The new maximums are $300,000 for a first offence and $600,000 for subsequent offences.
Provisions on reckless endangerment carry fines of up to $1.2m for corporations and individuals could face fines of $400,000 or five years' jail. The government says the new laws are likely to take effect in early 2008.
SA government media release [
pdf
]
Materials:
- ESV Safety Alert - Metering antenna mounting bracket found to be live [pdf] Energy Safe Victoria has issued a safety alert after an electrician received an electric shock while working near metering communications equipment. He had contacted a metallic duct and the mounting bracket of an antenna.
- From Queensland Mines Inspectorate - Safety Bulletin: Isocyanates from two-pack paints and use of polyurethane resins in mining [pdf]
Worksafe Prosecutions
Civil construction firm convicted after simple failures led to fatality
A County Court judge has told a major civil engineering company it was responsible for the death of a worker because it failed to take positive steps to ensure the safety of a worker who died in July 2003.
The company, FRH Victoria Pty Ltd, was fined $120,000 after it failed to provide written or verbal work instructions/job sheets and job safety assessments (JSAs) to the worker. The judge found the 29-year-old worker would not have died if the company had followed procedures that were reasonably practicable to implement.
WorkSafe media release
International News
UK: Corporate killers should face 'mega fines'
Corporations whose neglect results in deaths should face huge fines running to hundreds of millions of pounds, accoridng to advice to the UK government. However a corporate accountability group has said the proposed penalties are still 'simply too low.' The Sentencing Advisory Panel (SAP) advised that firms found guilty in court should be hit with penalties of as much as 10 per cent of their annual turnover. The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) was critical of the report, arguing the proposals are weaker than for breaches of European competition law and should be more severe. Source:
Risks 333
CCA Media release
UK: Two in three rigs fail on safety standards
THE North Sea oil industry has been hit with a damning report on safety standards on offshore production installations. A three-year investigation has found that almost two-thirds of the rigs and platforms inspected were in a poor state repair or non-compliant with regulations.
Investigators found endemic backlogs of work deemed 'safety-critical'. In one installation alone there was a backlog of 15,000 hours. The OILC union for offshore workers, setup in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, was critical that the report did not name the companies responsible for these serious breaches.
The report's finding were brought into sharp relief by an emergency evacuation of over 100 workers from one facility only days after the report was published.
OILC website
HSE Guide: Warehousing and Storage
The UK’s HSE has produced a free leaflet:
Keep it safe - new edition [
pdf
].
The guide aims to help to reduce injuries and cases of occupational ill health in the warehousing and storage industries.
New website for OHS Development
The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) based in the Philllipines, has recently developed a website. As well as information on health and safety in the Phillipines, there is other interesting info for all workers.
Events
International Human Rights Day (City)
Rally & March Sunday 9 December at 1pm, State Library, Cnr La Trobe and Swanston Streets More Information: 0418 316 310
International Human Rights Day (Footscray)
Family Picnic Sunday 9 December at 2pm; The Church Hall, 10 Hyde Street, Footscray More Information: Reyvi Marinas 0421 119776 Organised by PASA - The Philippines Australia Solidarity Association.
Solutions to Climate Change Festival
Sat 8 December, 1 to 5 pm at Darling Gardens, Clifton Hill. Friends of the Earth Melbourne, in collaboration with the City of Yarra, presents the annual Solutions to Climate Change community festival.
Inspiration to Change is the theme and the event is focused on inspiring people to implement solutions to climate change and improve the health of the planet.
More information
.
Training at Trades Hall
There’s still time to organise your registration for courses for the new year. Go to the training section of the website to check the courses scheduled at the VTHC OHS Training Unit.
Contact Judith Rodda on 03 9663 5460 for more information either scheduled courses or what we can do for your workplace, and to enrol.