Issue 142 - SafetyNet Journal 142
Welcome to SafetyNet Journal 142, your source for the latest OHS news from Australia and the world.Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events
Union News
Activities and news for reps
Victorian Government releases response to Stensholt review
The Victorian Government has released its response to the Administrative review of the OHS Act undertaken by Bob Stensholt MP. The Government said it supports the majority of the review’s 36 recommendations but considered some areas to be responsibility of the VWA for internal consideration.
The government accepted recommendations relating to increasing the protection to workers and ohs reps who raise ohs issues. This includes an increased focus on compliance and deterrence, including more targeted prosecutions. It also recommends the VWA increase the level of resources of its prosecutions and investigations branch.
The response called on the VWA to conduct policy analysis and stakeholder engagement in developing Stensholt’s proposal to amend the duty of designers of buildings or structures to include the construction phase of the building or structure. The Government’s response can be downloaded from the VWA website.
National OHS Review – unions preparing submissions
The ACTU, VTHC and affiliates are working on submissions into the National review into Model OHS Laws. Of fundamental importance to unions is that the harmonisation lead to an improvement in OHS protection for all workers around Australia. Other crucial matters include the function and powers of elected reps, duties of employers, consultation requirements, genuine protection of workers and reps against discrimination and harassment for raising OHS issues, and more. Submissions are due July 11. If you are interested in putting in a submission and would like some assistance, contact Renata through the website.
You can also contact your own union for more information.
Two fatalities from falls in one week
Two deaths in two days resulting from falls have yet again demonstrated the dangers of working at height. A 60-year-old man died last week after falling from racking at a Nunawading business on June 3. The next day a 62-year-old painter fell through a ceiling of a Templestowe house that was being renovated and later died in hospital.
WorkSafe has called for greater awareness of the dangers in the construction, retail, manufacturing, and warehousing industries. In the 2006-07 financial year, 13 Australian construction workers died after falls from height. Four of those were in Victoria.
VWA media release OHS Reps – Falls
Ask Renata –
What are the training requirements for OHS Reps?
There are no ‘requirements’ as such… elected OHS reps and deputies are entitled to attend the Introductory (5 day) training when they are elected, and then a one day ‘Refresher’ course in each subsequent year. (see Right to Training on our website) Both deputies and reps should ensure that they attend a union delivered or approved course as soon as possible after they are elected (check out the VTHC Training Program). Remember though, a rep can carry out all his/her functions under the OHS Act prior to or without having attended the training.
Do you have an OHS-related query? If so, Ask Renata.
New pages on website
Resources for OHS Reps - get to some good resources quickly, including a new resource from the TUC for OHS Reps – Occupational health: Dealing with the issues [pdf]
75% of ambos making mistake due to fatigue
A new survey by Victoria’s ambulance union has revealed that 75% of paramedics surveyed say they have been so exhausted by their workload and long hours they are making errors of judgment. Paramedics say the findings are further proof of a dangerous culture in Victoria’s ambulance services, which they want fixed through their enterprise negotiations.
The survey also revealed that paramedics are averaging just six hours sleep a night while rostered on, with 25% saying they are getting five hours sleep or less. Renowned sleep researcher Professor Drew Dawson has found similarities between the effects of fatigue and alcohol on performance impairment.
The online survey included more than 350 Victorian paramedics, or nearly 20% of the workforce. More than 10% of those surveyed reported occasions where they worked 35 hours or more without an eight hour break, some working up to 50 hours.
Steve McGhie, the ambulance union’s State Secretary, said the survey results are deeply disturbing. “It’s deemed okay to push long hours and huge workloads onto their staff, with little regard for the impact on them or the public. These are tragedies waiting to happen.”
AEA-V Media Release
Asbestos news
Diligent rep’s discovery leads to flurry of activity
A couple of months ago an observant OHS rep identified what he believed to be asbestos in the Boiler House servicing a number of hospitals in inner Melbourne. Investigations revealed that the 2002 audit was inadequate. A new audit was commissioned and it found that there was much more asbestos than originally thought. This meant that the boiler house workers had probably been exposed to asbestos fibres. It also meant that others, including general hospital workers, maintenance and nursing staff, and members of the public, could potentially be exposed. After several meetings involving all unions (construction, electrical, plumbing, health and nursing) and employers (both the relevant hospital and the company employing the boiler house maintenance workers), a satisfactory agreement was reached which included initiation of licensed removal work in the boiler house, new audits, development of a new Asbestos Management Plan, training of workers, the establishment of an Asbestos working group and more.
Have you checked whether the asbestos audits at your workplace are up to date? Check your employer’s duty to control asbestos.
US health advocates push to ban asbestos in America
A new committee led by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) and The John McNamara Foundation will work to ban asbestos in the US. The Committee to Ban Asbestos in America (CBAA) will advocate to members of Congress to ban the deadly substance and bring the US into line with similar bans in developed nations around the world.
CBAA news release
National news
Qld: Deaths spark calls to ban swing scaffolding
Queensland building unions are calling for bans on swing scaffolding following the deaths of two workers who fell 26 storeys on a Gold Coast high rise where they’d been patching concrete. The CFMEU is calling for changes to regulations that would require them to be anchored to the building. The union has banned the use of the systems and will conduct an audit of all Qld sites using them. Witnesses reportedly saw the scaffold tilt away from the building leaving the workers hanging from their harnesses before the system collapsed.
The incident prompted the Qld Builders Labourer’s Federation to call for industrial manslaughter laws for OHS breaches resulting in death. The union has promised to name and shame builders engaged in unsafe work practices.
Sources: ABC, The Age
Mt Isa lead studies paint confusing picture
The lead contamination of Mt Isa continues to be a political football with conflicting reports painting differing pictures of the issue. An environmental study of lead levels in homes in the town shows mining emissions are contaminating some homes, with one showing a reading 40 times above international standards. Environmental scientist Mark Taylor conducted the study, commissioned by legal firm Slater and Gordon, which is taking legal action against Xstrata, the Mt Isa Council and the Queensland Government over high blood levels in the town’s children.
However the Qld EPA has issued a report which says that some homes in the mining town may have been contaminated via clothing and equipment and not through the air. The Queensland Government also says a study it has conducted into lead levels in Mt Isa homes shows about 90 per cent of those it tested are considered safe under Australian standards.
Source: ABC
International Union news
Italian metalworkers stage national strike on safety
Three Italian metalworker unions held a one hour strike on June 17 in support of implementing a new law on health and safety at work. The action follows a dramatic series of daily deaths at work in Italy, including the deaths of seven workers at ThyssenKrupp in Turin in December last year. The unions are striking in reaction to the position of the employers association, Confindustria, which is refusing to acknowledge the responsibility of employers when it comes to fundamental safety rules at work, particularly in relation to subcontractors. The action comes after the deaths of six workers inside a water purification tank in Mineo, on the Italian island of Sicily.
In a joint statement to the press the unions called on the government to take "immediate economic measures supporting health and safety at work" including investing in the National Institute, INAIL, which is responsible for investing in prevention and compensation for damages.
"We strike for the implementation of the new law on health and safety at work, as it is, in all its parts and with the maximum of severity," stated the unions.
IMF media release
UK: Work fatality rate higher than murder
Twice as many people die from fatal injuries at work than are victims of homicide, says a new report from the UK. Academics Professor Steve Tombs and Dr Dave Whyte found that at least 1,300 people died as a result of fatal occupational injuries in 2005-06 in England and Wales, compared with 765 homicide deaths. Non-fatal workplace injuries requiring hospitalisation were also likely to be greater that year than those needing such treatment following the violent offences formally recorded as crimes.
The report puts the heat on the UK Health and Safety Executive over the trend towards ‘light touch' regulation of business, which has effectively ‘decriminalised' death and injury at work. The report notes that HSE enforcement notices fell by 40% and prosecutions fell by 49% between 2001/02 and 2005/06.
Centre for Crime and Justice report – A crisis of enforcement: The decriminalisation of death and injury at work Risks 361
ITF launches new resource for world’s seafarers.
A major new resource for the world’s seafarers was unveiled last week at the ITF’s maritime conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The website www.itfseafarers.org, an innovative news, advice and support service, was launched both to press and to the hundreds of inspectors, dockers’ and seafarers’ delegates attending the week long conference..
ITF Media release
Research
Psychosocial factors at work increase risk of depression
A research study into the links between psychosocial workplace factors and increased risk of depression has found there is circumstantial evidence that this is the case. The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine examined 16 studies of company populations which included around 63,000 workers.The study says that a definite causal link between psychosocial factors and depression is ruled out due to methodological differences across the studies and suggests that studies implementing objective measures of job stressors are warranted.
Psychosocial factors at work and risk of depression: a systematic review of the epidemiological evidence [abstract] 16 April 2008. doi:10.1136/oem.2007.038430 Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2008; 65:438-445
Overtime linked to anxiety and depression
Working a lot of overtime, especially in low income jobs or doing heavy manual labour, increases the risk of anxiety and depression. Researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway used data on work hours and questionnaires gauging the mental health of over 10,000 workers and compared the 9,000 people who worked 40 hours or less to those doing overtime, of whom there were 1,350. The latter were more depressed and anxious.
Men showed an increase in negative feelings from 9 per cent for regular hours to 12.5 per cent for long hours. Those who worked the longest hours - up to 100 per week - at physically strenuous jobs had even higher rates. For women, depression increased from 7 per cent to 12 per cent with overtime.
The researchers found that even moderate overtime hours appear to raise the risk of 'mental distress' and suggested it could be that working overtime leads to increased 'wear and tear,' or that people with characteristics predisposing them to anxiety and depression, such as low education and job skills, are more likely to take jobs requiring long work hours.
Elisabeth Kleppa, Bjarte Sanne and Grethe S Tell. Working overtime is associated with anxiety and depression: The Hordaland Health Study, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 50, number 6, pages 658-666, June 2008 [abstract].
Risks 361
Australia leads the world in not taking holidays
Australian workers have been ranked as the worst in the world for taking their entitled holidays according to a new survey. It is the second year in a row Australians have been ranked at the bottom in the annual global Vacation Deprivation survey by online travel company Expedia.
The survey found one third of Australians cite financial pressure as stopping them from taking their annual leave entitlements.
Source: Workplace OHS
WorkSafe News
ASCC updates hazardous substances info
The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) is about to update
the listing of classified hazardous substances on the Hazardous Substances
Information System (HSIS) online database to reflect recent legislative changes in Europe.
The HSIS online database is a free, publicly available internet resource on the
ASCC website that allows users to find information on substances
classified as hazardous or that have an exposure standard.
A full list of the changes is available on the HSIS website.
Resources – Update on alert for particulate filters
WorkSafe has issued an update to a safety alert on some Sundstrom filters originally issued last year. The updated alert suggests that the filters can used during wet asbestos decontamination and outlines the responsibilities for ensuring the appropriate use and maintenance of the devices.
Alert
Worksafe Prosecutions
Another fall protection failing sends construction a message
An eastern suburbs company and its director have been convicted and fined a total of $17,000 for failing to provide appropriate fall protection at a Northcote home renovation project. Maurice McCutcheon, the director of McCutcheon Builders Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to one charge laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and was fined $2000. His company, McCutcheon Builders Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to one charge and was convicted and fined $15,000.
WorkSafe says the case shows the risks of falls from height are still not being adequately addressed by the construction industry.
The charges related to an incident in May 2007 where a subcontractor plasterer fell while working at a Northcote house. The 65-year-old man suffered a stroke and a fractured skull
VWA media release
Company prosecuted after Chinese migrant workers hurt
Lakeside Packaging Pty Ltd, in Campbellfield has pleaded guilty to seven workplace health and safety charges after two Chinese workers in Australia on section 457 visas suffered serious injuries in 2006. WorkSafe prosecuted over the company’s failure to provide and maintain a safe workplace, its failure to properly train and supervise the Chinese workers and its failure to provide instruction or interpreters in their native Mandarin.
The men had little understanding of English. WorkSafe told the court one man’s right forearm was crushed in an unguarded machine as he tried to remove misfed paper on 16 March 2006. He spent two weeks in hospital.
Several weeks later a second Chinese man was hurt in two separate incidents. In the first he broke his right arm and two teeth when he fell from a ladder placed on a table. In the second incident, his left arm was injured while using a two-handed drill while building a scaffold. Told to complete the job, he used his right arm, still in a brace, and chin. It was later found that his left arm was broken.
VWA media release
Companies fined over crush death
Two companies were prosecuted in the Ballarat County Court over an incident in May 2005 where worker was crushed to death by a modified waster container while unloading it from a truck onto a trailer via an unsafe hook lift. Landfill Reductions Pty Ltd, the worker’s employer, was fined $8000 for breaching S21 of the OHS Act.
However, Haulmaster Equipment Co Pty Ltd, the company designing, manufacturing and supplying mobile material handling equipment including devices known as “hook lifts”, was fined a total of$120,000 for breaching S22, The company is in liquidation, meaning the fines will probably not be paid. The court found the design of the hooks was inadequate and the company failed to provide adequate operational manuals or hazard identification for them.
NSW Education Dept fined $105,000 in union OHS prosecution
The NSW Teachers Federation has a won an OHS prosecution it brought against the NSW Department of Education and Training over its failure to supply a safe workplace for teachers. The prosecution arose from an incident where a newly enrolled special needs student spoke aggressively and assaulted two teachers at a school in March 2003. The NSW IRC had fined the education department $220,000 in 2006 over a similar incident at another school.
The Teachers Federation is calling on the department to provide information to schools on newly enrolled students with a history of violence.
Source: Occupational Health News
International News
Europe launches new risk assessment campaign
A new European information campaign is spreading the message that most accidents and diseases are preventable, and the first step is through better and more thorough risk assessments. The ‘Healthy Workplaces. Good for you. Good for business' campaign will run for two years and concentrate on construction and other high-risk areas such as healthcare, agriculture and on smaller employers. It has been launched by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).
EU-OSHA news release, Risk Assessment website
Source: Risks 361
Journalist killings highlight need for global action
The International Federation of Journalists says that the abduction and murder of a local journalist working for the BBC in southern Afghanistan is the latest in a series of media tragedies that underscores the need for comprehensive international action to confront the global crisis of violence against independent reporters. He was the second BBC reporter to be killed in as many days.
IFJ media release
New European chemical laws force change globally
Europe has introduced new chemical safety laws – dubbed REACH – which come into effect from June and they are forcing other countries to improve their standards as well. The EU regulations take a far more precautionary approach than US laws where regulators must prove a chemical is harmful before it can be restricted or removed from the market.
A Washington Post report says the European regulations are forcing American manufacturers to seek safer substances in order to be able compete internationally. The US laws on chemicals are notoriously light on for effective regulation. The US Environmental Protection Agency has banned only five chemicals since 1976 and the agency has still been unable to ban asbestos.
Risks 361
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)
July 14 – 18 Initial Carlton
July 21 – 25 DEECD Carlton
August 4 – 8 Initial Ringwood
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $620.00
Initial 5-Day Country
August 25 – 29 Initial Morwell
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $650.00
Comcare 5-Day OHS Reps Course (for Elected OHS Reps under the Comcare Act)
July 28 – August 21 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.
July 21 DEECD / Legislative Update Carlton
July 22 Manual Handling Carlton
July 23 Hazardous Substances 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 provides free training to workers and their representatives and includes practical tools, information and advice about injured workers’ rights to return to work.
For more information on training at the RTW Unit go to the website.