SafetyNet JOURNAL
SafetyNet Journal 138
Issue 138 - SafetyNet Journal 138
Welcome to SafetyNet 138, your source for the latest news in OHS from Australia and around the world.Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events
Union News
Activities and News for Reps
Workers Memorial Day 2008
On April 28, International Workers Memorial Day, unions stood with bereaved families and supporters to highlight the true cost of the hundreds of workers killed and the thousands of lives lost to work in Australia each year - and called for a greater focus on the impact of cancer in the workplace. There have been eight workplace fatalities in Victoria already in 2008.
Some 150 people gathered at the Memorial Rock at Trades Hall to mark the day. Brian Boyd, VTHC secretary, welcomed the national Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign and called on the State Government to fix loopholes in compensation for asbestos victims (see item under Asbestos News). ACTU President Sharan Burrow called for a national inquiry into asbestos.
Deanne May of IDSA and Tony Evans spoke of the tragedy of losing a loved one and urged greater support for families of people who die at work.
Read more on
Workers Memorial Day
IWMD events
around the Globe
Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign
May Day celebration at Trades Hall
Celebrate the many social achievements and ongoing struggle of working people in this country on Sunday 4th May at Trades Hall. The Family Festival & May Day March Festivities begin at 12pm in Lygon St outside Trades Hall. The May Day March assembles at 1pm on the corner of Victoria and Russell Sts, opposite Trades Hall, and then moves through the city and back to Lygon St. Speakers, activities, stalls.
Ask Renata
Does an elected rep have to get the permission of the DWG members before issuing a PIN to the employer?
No, a rep is elected by the DWG to represent them. If the rep has identified an OHS issue of concern, has raised it with the employer, and is not satisfied with the employer’s response, then he or she has the right to issue a PIN. In most cases, the rep will have previously consulted on the issue with members of the DWG. In fact, someone in the DWG may have brought the matter to the rep’s attention in the first place. It’s always a good idea for the rep to make sure that the DWG members are aware of what he or she is doing, and how OHS issues are progressing, including when a PIN is issued.
Link:
A PIN – how to use it
Do you have an OHS question? Click here: Ask Renata
Ambos launch Response Time website
The Ambulance Employees Association has launched a new website to support the campaign for more resources for their members. The website comes as part of the union’s campaign for a better response to the critical fatigue issues facing paramedics.AEA State Secretary Steve McGhie welcomed the recent announcement of a further 260 extra paramedics over the next four years but warned that more was needed to avert a crisis.
“In our budget submission we said we need at a minimum, an extra 350 paramedics over three years. This announcement is at least 90 paramedics short and spread over four years,” he said.
The AEA also says the announcements will do very little to relieve paramedic fatigue, currently at dangerously high levels. It says paramedics need better rosters and 10 hour rest breaks between shifts, and has warned the intensive care MICA ambulance service is in danger of collapsing.
Response Time website OHS Reps page on Fatigue
Taxi drivers win safety upgrades
Taxi drivers blockaded the centre of Melbourne following a colleague's stabbing on the job and won a commitment from the government for better safety measures for the industry. Transport Minister, Lynne Kosky committed to introducing pre-paid fares at night and the installation of security screens in cabs.
Hundreds of taxi drivers and their vehicles converged on the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Sts, one of the cities busiest and blockaded the area for 22 hours following the stabbing of a 23-year-old driver on Tuesday morning. The drivers had threatened to expand the blockade to Melbourne airport if their demands were not met.
Source: The Age
ASCC meets in Canberra, commits to national approach
The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) has met for the eighth time in Canberra and committed to the development of a nationally consistent approach to OHS.
The Council made several decisions in its work to coordinate national efforts to prevent workplace death, injury and disease including new commitments on stevedoring. The Council also released a range of new documents on Falls Codes and Safety Data (see item under WorkSafe News below).
ASCC Communiqué [ pdf ] OHS Reps on Falls
MUA welcomes consistent approach on ports
The Maritime Union has welcomed ASCC’s announcement that it will develop a nationally consistent approach for OH&S at Australian stevedoring ports. The decision comes after the deaths of four stevedoring workers in four years and a union national and international campaign to tighten safety on the job.
"We lost four waterside workers, two last year in Victoria," said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "Their families lost their loved ones, their workmates watched them die. We just could not just stand back and let this happen again."
Mr Crumlin called for the introduction of a stevedoring code of practice and said it was now important that the ASCC achieve a nationally consistent and enforceable standard for stevedoring OH&S that is monitored by a national OH&S regulatory agency.
MUA media release
Cancer Council workplace courses online now
The Victorian Cancer Council has a range of cancer education workplace program designed to help workers cut down on their cancer risk. Sessions include SunSmart Protection and Men's and Women’s cancer information sessions which look at ways of tackling specific risk factors.
Courses can be booked online or contact the Cancer Education Workplace Program on (03) 9635 5227 for more information.
Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign Cancer - what causes it?
WorkSafe Awards close soon, enter now!
Time is almost up for you to enter the WorkSafe Awards. The deadline is 9 May so go online now if you haven’t already. Entries are open in a range of categories including Safety Rep of the Year.
Nominate online today. The WorkSafe Awards Coordinator can also answer your questions on (03) 8663 5033 or emailing awards@worksafe.vic.gov.au
Remember entries close 9 May!
Asbestos News
Asbestos comp loophole limits payouts for Victorians
Unions and asbestos campaigners have called on the State Government to to provide for victims of asbestos related diseases to be able to make a claim for ‘provisional damages’.
Speaking at a ceremony on Workers Memorial Day, lawyer Peter Gordon, said the laws were inconsistent with every other mainland state in Australia where claimants are able to receive a ‘provisional damages’ payment for an asbestos related condition - and then make a further future claim if they then develop a worse condition (such as mesothelioma). Peter also paid respects to all asbestos advocacy groups and activists around Australia.
OHS Reps page on
Asbestos
CFMEU warns 1 in 10 older carpenters will die from meso
The CFMEU has also called on the Government to amend asbestos comp loopholes as a new study shows 1 in 10 Australian carpenters born before 1950 will die from mesothelioma. The study launched by UK cancer research specialist Pr. Julian Peto in Melbourne revealed that Australian construction methods mean carpenters here are particularly vulnerable to developing asbestos related disease.
“This new study emphasizes the urgent need for the Victorian Government to amend compensation legislation,” said CFMEU Victorian Secretary Martin Kingham.
“Families are being cheated out of compensation and forced to gamble their financial security on how sick they think they might get in the future.”
The union warns the Australian construction industry had the highest use of asbestos in the world, and workers are now left with the legacy of decades of exposure to asbestos. It is estimated that 30,000 Australians will develop mesothelioma over the next 40 years.
CFMEU media release
Global unions call for asbestos ban support
Global union federations have renewed their call for a global asbestos ban.
The Building and Woodworkers' International (BWI), last month appealed to the Canadian Labour Congress for help to end the export of Canadian chrysotile asbestos to the developing world, where local unions are struggling to avoid an epidemic of asbestos diseases on a massive scale.
Canada exports around 250 thousand tons of asbestos each year to Asia, Africa and Latin America where information on the hazards and control measures to protect local workers and communities from exposure is ‘non-existent’.
The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) also called for a ban on asbestos and proper compensation for workers writing to the Geneva embassies and consulates of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
BWI news release
IMF news release
Canadian asbestos: One killer export
, Ban Asbestos Canada Network.
Other Union News
Formaldehyde could be the next asbestos: CFMEU
The CFMEU is calling for an urgent large-scale investigation into the use of formaldehyde and warned the chemical could be as dangerous as asbestos. Up to 50 workers involved in the Northern Territory intervention were recently exposed to levels of formaldehyde five times greater than national advisable levels in the converted shipping containers they have been living for six months.
Unions were critical of delays in the response to concerns raised in the NT after many workers complained of nausea and headaches from sleeping in the converted containers.
According to the CFMEU, high levels of the carcinogen could be found throughout Australian homes as it is used in particle board and furniture. The union has called on the Federal Government to legislate as they have done for materials that contain asbestos and make it an offence for people to import products that are hazardous and are recognised as being above the Australian exposure standard.
Sources:
ABC
The Age
International Union News
Murder charges call after Casablanca factory fireA massive factory fire in Casablanca in Morocco has claimed the lives of 54 workers and prompted calls for murder charges to be brought against managers and government officials who’d ignored worker abuse and safety hazards in the factory.
The global trade union representing textile workers, ITGLWF, described the incident as ‘inevitable mass murder arising from employer greed and official negligence’.
According to survivors of the fire, workers were being paid less than the legal minimum wage, weren’t registered for social security and worked in appalling conditions with factory doors and windows barred and locked during working hours making escape nearly impossible.
ITGLWF news release
US: Jump in Fatalities of Latino Workers
Workplace fatalities have increased sharply for Latino and immigrant workers, reports the new AFL-CIO annual study: Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect. The report was released to coincide with Workers Memorial Day and tracks workplace deaths in the United States.
It found that in 2006, fatal injuries among Latino workers increased by seven per cent over 2005, with 990 fatalities among this group of workers, the highest number ever reported. The report also shows that the fatality rate among Hispanic workers in 2006 was 25 percent higher than the fatal injury rate for all U.S. workers.
AFL-CIO news release
Read more International News on OHS Reps
To keep up to date with the biggest international OHS stories, go to the new section on website, under ‘News and Views’ – the International NewsWire. This continuously updated health and safety news service comes courtesy of LabourStart.
OHS Reps International News Wire
Research
Queensland miners drunk with fatigue - study
Australian miners who work more than eight consecutive 12-hour shifts suffer the same level of impairment as someone who is drunk, a new study shows.Researchers from James Cook University (JCU) monitored 55 miners who work at a fly-in-fly-out site in far-north Queensland on a 28-day roster. Miners were rostered to work up to 14 consecutive 12-hour day shifts.
Researchers conducted physical tests and asked the miners to complete sleep and lifestyle diaries in order to monitor the cause of fatigue. JCU academic Dr Anthony Carter said the results showed fatigue affected miners in a similar way to them having a blood alcohol level of 0.05 or more.
Epidemiological Diagnosis of Occupational Fatigue in a Fly-In-Fly-Out Operation of the Mineral Industry. Annals of Occupational Hygiene. 52(1):63-72, January 2008
Muller, Reinhold; Carter, Anthony; Williamson, Ann [ Abstract ]
Formaldehyde link to Lou Gehrig's disease
New research suggests that formaldehyde exposure could greatly increase a person's chances of developing Lou Gehrig's disease (or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS]). Previously formaldehyde exposure wasn’t considered a risk factor for the disease, which causes loss of the ability to control muscles, paralysis and is rapidly fatal.
Study author Marc Weisskopf, assistant professor of epidemiology and environmental health at Harvard Medical School and colleagues examined statistics from an American Cancer Society study of more than 1 million people who were followed for 15 years. Those who reported exposure to formaldehyde had a higher risk - 34 per cent higher - of developing ALS.
Those who reported more than 10 years of exposure to formaldehyde were almost four times more likely to develop ALS. Formaldehyde is also a group 1 carcinogen, the highest category for cancer risk.
Marc Weisskopf and others. Prospective study of chemical exposures and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mortality, AAN Meeting 2008; Abstract # S25.005. AAN news release [ pdf]
Risks 353
Study highlights cancer in hairdressers
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has warned that hairdressers probably face an increased threat of cancer because of the dyes and chemicals they use, following a reviewed of large- scale investigations into cancer risk.
It found that among male hairdressers and barbers, the risk of cancer of the bladder was between 20 and 60 per cent higher compared with the general population. The report reaffirmed occupational exposures of hairdressers and barbers as “probably carcinogenic to humans.'
Robert Baan, Kurt Straif, Yann Grosse, Béatrice Secretan, Fatiha El Ghissassi, Véronique Bouvard, Lamia Benbrahim-Tallaa, Vincent Cogliano, on behalf of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working Group. Carcinogenicity of some aromatic amines, organic dyes, and related exposures, The Lancet Oncology, volume 9, number 4, pages 322-323, April 2008. Risks 352
Mind-numbing jobs are bad for you
Boring jobs turn our minds on to autopilot which means we can make simple but serious mistakes. Monotonous duties switch our brain to 'rest mode,' whether we like it or not, researchers report in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers found mistakes can be predicted up to 30 seconds before we make them by patterns in our brain activity. Researchers studied participants brains as they responded to visual cues and found that participants' mistakes were 'foreshadowed' by a telltale pattern of brain activity.
Instead of possible commercial products which predict when a worker’s mind is switching off suggested by the researchers, better- designed jobs and more breaks would be a more immediate and better solution.
Tom Eichele and others. Prediction of human errors by maladaptive changes in event-related brain networks, PNAS, volume 105, number 16, pages 6173-6178, 22 April 2008 [
abstract
].
BBC News Online
Risks 253
WorkSafe News
Arm severed at factory
A worker lost part of his right arm when it was severed in an industrial bale press at a Thomastown clothing-recycling depot. The 40-year-old man was operated on at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after the incident at the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Thomastown on 16 April. WorkSafe is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Useful resources and publications:
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Safety Alert -
Mini crawler cranes overturn
VWA safety alert to highlight to owners, operators and users of mini crawler cranes the dangers of overturning. It also provides basic recommendations for operating mini crawler cranes safely. - New All Terrain Vehicle Handbook
This new WorkSafe handbook outlines legal requirements and strategies to ensure the safe operation of All Terrain Vehicle's on farms.
ASCC
Report on work-related traumatic injury fatalitiesThe Australian Safety and Compensation Council has released a report into Work-related traumatic injury fatalities, Australia, 2004-05. The report is part of the ASCC’s response to concern that compensation data does not accurately reflect the true rate of worker fatalities.
The report notes: 249 persons died from work-related injuries while working for income; 150 of the 249 fatalities were caused by mobile plant and transport with 58 due to trucks, semi-trailers and lorries and 43 due to cars, station wagons, vans or utilities; 98 people died on the way to or from work; and, 58 people were killed as bystanders to work activity.
The full statistical data is available on the ASCC website. ASCC media release
National Code of Practice for the Prevention of Falls in Construction
The ASCC has declared the Code of Practice for the Prevention of Falls in Construction. The General Falls Code aims to reduce the incidence of fatalities and injuries resulting from working at height in the civil construction sector and encourage a nationally consistent approach to the implementation of OHS in this industry.
The ASCC has also released a Draft National Code of Practice for the Prevention of Falls in Housing Construction for public comment. The Draft Code is available online and open for comment until 31 July 2008.
Worksafe Prosecutions
Company fined $40k for excavator incident
Delta Group pleaded guilty and was fined $40,000 plus costs, but without conviction, over an incident in November 2005 where an excavator struck overhead power lines near Rosebud’s Port Phillip Plaza Shopping Centre. No-one was injured though one power line came down and a pole was destabilised.
WorkSafe said a spotter was not trained in preventing the excavator from entering the no-go zone around the power lines and was trying to prevent pedestrians from entering the area.
WorkSafe guidance on overhead and underground work [
pdf
]
WorkSafe media release
Recycling company committed to stand trial over fall
A Coolaroo company SKM Recycling has been committed to stand trial over a 2005 incident where a worker was injured after falling 3.9 metres from an unguarded conveyor.
The man was working at SKM’s premises which contained a series of conveyers for transferring materials onto sorting belts. He fell from a conveyer onto the concrete floor below. The case is due to appear in the Melbourne County Court in June.
International News
US pig plant wins awards for worker safety despite brain illnesses
A US pork processing plant that has seen several cases of mysterious illnesses among its workers has won a workplace safety award. Quality Pork Processors was one of 41 winners of the Award of Honor from the American Meat Institute. It's the highest category among the institute's three levels of worker safety recognition awards. The industry group honoured 121 plants in all.As reported previously in SafetyNet there has been a spate of suspected neurological diseases at US pork producers. More than a dozen workers who processed pig brains at this plant have developed neurological problems that investigators suspect are an autoimmune response to the pig’s brain tissue.
Source: Pump Handle
World sportswear industry's Olympic shame
The spotlight on work conditions is intensifying in the lead up to the Beijing games. Now the poor conditions for employees of sportswear manufacturers have been highlighted by a new report.
‘Clearing the hurdles' is a damning new report from the labour rights coalition Play Fair 2008 (PF08) based on interviews with over 300 sportswear workers in China, India, Thailand and Indonesia. It reveals that violations of worker rights are still the sportswear industry norm.
Last year Play Fair 2008 released a report on rights violations in the production of Olympic-branded goods and since then has been seeking a concrete commitment from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on an action plan, with little success.
UK unions have raised concerns with the organisers of the London Olympics and are looking to them to ensure that London 2012 does not have its reputation sullied by such abuses as those outlined in the report.
ITUC news release Play Fair 2008 webpage and full report, Clearing the hurdles: Steps to improving working conditions in the global sportswear industry', Play Fair 2008 (PF08) [ pdf ].
Events
Training at VTHC
The OHS Training Unit has a range of courses coming up in 2008. Check out the training page of the website for all the latest news and sign up for courses.
Contact Judith Rodda on 03 9663 5460 for more information on scheduled courses or what we can do for your workplace, and to enrol.
Initial 5-Day Metropolitan (for Elected OHS Reps under the Victorian OHS Act - this course is approved by the VWA under Section 67)
June 2 – 6 Initial Carlton
June 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 Health Services Carlton
June 16 – 20 Initial Frankston
July 14 – 18 Initial Carlton
July 21 – 25 DEECD Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $620.00
Initial 5-Day Country
May 19 – 23 Geelong
May 19 – 23 Wodonga
May 26 – 30 Bendigo
May 26 – 30 Ballarat
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $650.00
Comcare 5-Day Ohs Reps Course (for Elected OHS Reps under the Comcare Act) June 16 – 20 Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $650.00
2-Day Metropolitan
This 2-day course is an overview designed for managers, supervisors and committee members. It is NOT a replacement for the VWA approved 5-day training for elected reps.
July 24, 25 Carlton
Course hours: 9.30am - 4.30pm. Course fee $350.00
1-Day Refresher
The Refresher course is approved by the VWA under Section 67 of the Victorian OHS Act 2004 for elected reps and deputies.
June 5 Legislative Update Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 4.30pm. Course fee $180.00
Go to the 2008 Training program page to download an application form.
Return to Work Unit Training
The VTHC Return to Work Unit challenges the barriers that stop injured workers returning to full and meaningful employment. The RTW Unit provides free training to workers and their representatives and includes practical tools, information and advice about injured workers’ rights to return to work.
Call the RTW Unit for information (03) 9662 3511 or go to the website for more information .