Issue 153 - SafetyNet Journal 153
Welcome to SafetyNet Journal, your source for the latest in local and international OHS news and campaigns. In this edition: Compliance Codes; All the news from Asbestos Awareness Week; 91 trade unionists murdered in 2007; and the proof is in – bad bosses make you sick… Plus all the latest research and international news. And we have a competition: we have 2 double passes for DUST – Tonight at Williamstown Town Hall. First in best dressed – call Margot on 03 9659 3570.Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events
Union News
Activities and news for reps
Materials from the OHS Reps Conference are now online
Presentations and materials from the 8th Annual OHS Reps Conference are on the website now. Download the presentations and read all about the event here.
Ask Renata –
WorkSafe has now issued new Compliance Codes, including the Compliance Code for Workplace amenities and environment. Is the advice on toilets and other facilities still the same?
The new compliance code is longer and has more guidance than the old Code of Practice, but the advice on toilets and changerooms is basically the same. The advice on dining facilities has been updated though. Check these FAQs on the website:
- Toilet facilities - what should workplaces have?
- Change rooms and other facilities
- Dining facilities - what must employers provide?
Do you have an OHS-related query? If so, Ask Renata.
Farmer dies in tractor mishap
A farmer aged in his mid 70s died recently when he was run over by the rear wheels of a tractor while working on his property in Bahgallah in Victoria’s Western District. The end of the year is a dangerous time in the country with many farmers working to prepare for the summer months. There have been numerous instances of farmers being killed while working alone over the years and WorkSafe has highlighted the danger posed especially by tractors. WorkSafe is investigating the incident.
VWA media release
Asbestos News
ADSVIC Commemoration Ceremony
The annual multifaith commemoration ceremony held at The Edge on 27 November was, as always, a moving experience. The event was a mix of wonderful songs from Dust (performed by Mark Seymour and a mixed choir), personal contributions from those who are either living with an asbestos-related disease or have lost someone to it, quiet reflection and the lighting of candles/floating of flowers. Though essentially a sad event, Martin Kingham (president of ADSVIC and CFMEU Secretary) reminded everyone there that the struggle begun by trade unions many years ago to rid our country of the deadly asbestos fibre is not over yet. After many years asbestos is now banned in Australia – yet it’s still out there: in up to 400,000 homes and countless commercial buildings and public places.
Not only workers, but everyone in our community have been and continue to be exposed to asbestos – an on-going and preventable tragedy.
Asbestos Awareness Week: What can you do?
The last week of November each year, Asbestos Awareness Week, serves as a potent reminder of the effects of asbestos and provides an opportunity to remember and support the families affected by asbestos-related diseases.
While the week is almost over, it’s not too late to check with your employer that there is an up-to-date asbestos audit of their workplace. There are a few simple questions to ask that can help you. Does your workplace have an Asbestos audit/register? (Fill out the Poll on the homepage).
Does your workplace have an Asbestos Management Plan? Use this checklist for the right questions to ask your employer. Has someone discovered something that may be asbestos, or asbestos contaminated material? Use this checklist to give you some tips on what to do and where to go. Also, make sure you take a look at the Asbestos Action Plan for Reps.
The ACTU has also used the occasion to call for a consistent national approach to the ticking time bomb of asbestos in homes, workplaces and public infrastructure. Australia has the highest known rate of mesothelioma sufferers in the world and there is an enormous amount of asbestos still lurking in the community.
ACTU Media Release: Asbestos time bomb still haunts homes and workplaces Asbestos Awareness Week 2008
Dust on this weekend
ADSVIC and the VTHC will be holding a special reception at the opening night performance of Dust on Friday 28th November at the Williamstown Town Hall, 104 Ferguson St, Williamstown. Dust is a creative collaboration between people with asbestos related disease and Hubcap Productions, with music written by Mark Seymour. Friday night’s performance is sold out but there are still tickets available for the shows on Saturday and Sunday. If you would like to see the performance, tickets are available by calling 03 9932 2001 or visiting the Hobsons Bay website. Tickets are $22 for adults and $17 for student, concession and matinee sessions.
Public talk by director of Bernie Banton Centre
Professor Nico van Zandwijk will be speaking in Melbourne discussing the work of the Bernie Banton Centre in researching asbestos diseases.
The ADRI aims to reduce the burden of asbestos exposure to the Australian community and to provide a better future for those affected by asbestos-related diseases. His presentation will focus on the research program of the ADRI, comprising of epidemiology and prevention, the establishment of a tissue bank, molecular biological aspects of Malignant Mesothelioma, new drug development and plans for a more efficient structure of health care around patients with Malignant Mesothelioma.
‘Asbestos Diseases Research: New Avenues in Sydney’
12:30—1:00 sandwiches, RSVP deborahv@unimelb.edu.au
1.00 pm Thursday 4th December 2008
Stillwell Room, Graduate House, 220 Leicester Street Carlton
Nico van Zandwijk, Asbestos Diseases Research Institute (ADRI), Bernie Banton Centre, University of Sydney
New item on website: When you can’t breathe nothing else matters
This paper by Dr Yossi Berger, AWU National OHS Officer, explores important issues regarding asbestos regulation in Australia. It is on the OHS Reps website now.
When you can’t breathe nothing else matters – Dr Yossi Berger
Photographic exhibition – Breathe: Asbestos widows
This beautiful exhibition by photographer Chris Ireland features widows of asbestos victims and is a poignant study of these remarkable characters.
Asbestos leaves a cruel legacy. In the dread that it engenders, in the pain and suffering it brings to so many families, in arrested dreams, in the sheer contemplation of what may lie ahead, it knocks us breathless. One particularly poignant legacy is the widow. She faces her loss daily. How does she cope? What strengths does she draw from her husband’s memory? What encapsulates her resolve to live a meaningful and purposeful life? This exhibition, simply titled Breathe, is dedicated to those widows united by that loss, and to their men who have gone. Theirs is a story about strength, resilience and the will to breathe.
Chris Ireland Photography SMH article
Latest GARDS newsletter online
Latest GARDS newsletter is online now. Includes reaction to Premier John Brumby’s apology to asbestos victims and their families as well as all the latest news and events from GARDS.
GARDS Newsletter November 2008
Asbestos radio documentary – Deadly Dust
As part of Asbestos Awareness Week, Mia Lindgren's one-hour radio documentary Deadly Dust was broadcast on ABC Radio National’s history program Hindsight on Sunday 23 November. The program will be available online for listening and/or download for four-weeks post broadcast on the Radio National website. There will also be photos relevant to the story and a 1951 video from Wittenoom on the ABC Hindsight website.
Once considered the ‘magic mineral’, the story of asbestos has become one of corporate greed and lives destroyed. Deadly Dust takes us from the blue dust of Wittenoom, through the lengthy legal fight for compensation to the personal stories of asbestos victims. The radio documentary is one of the outcomes of Professor Musk’s multidisciplinary research project ‘Community consequences of asbestos exposure‘.
Nanotechnology News
Ridiculous Nanosilver fad puts thousands at risk
The Scostman reports on a ludicrous internet fad that highlights some of the misinformation and ignorance that exists around nanotechnology and the very real dangers subsequently posed. Potentially thousands of people have been put at risk because they are buying supposed health drinks and tablets online which are claimed to contain nanosilver. The retailers claim the nanosilver particle in these products have antibacterial and are therefore a health benefit to humans. Nano-sized silver particles have been used in bandages and other external treatments, but the ingestion of such particles could have serious consequences and lead to ailments including cancer and brain damage. The anti-bacterial properties of nanosilver are well known and have been exploited in all manner of products which many researchers fear could lead to their presence in the food chain with unknown long-term health impacts. The idea that people would willingly ingest these materials as some kind of health kick is concerning.
The Scotsman
Other Union News
ABCC: Noel Washington charges dropped
Unions were pleased to learn that the Commonwealth DPP has dropped charges against CFMEU Organiser Noel Washington only days before he was due to face court and the possibility of six months in jail. The ABCC brought the charges after Noel refused to disclose what happened in a union meeting. Under the draconian powers of the ABCC workers and unionists face fines and jail for refusing to cooperate. The laws have put workers’ ohs at increased risk in an industry in which, on average, 50 workers die each year.
Victorian unions had planned to rally outside the Melbourne Magistrates Court when the case was due to be heard but will now gather outside the offices of the ABCC in St Kilda Rd.
Rally - Abolish the ABCC ,Tuesday 2 December at 10 am outside the ABCC Melbourne Headquarters, 533 St Kilda Rd.
Rights On Site VTHC ACTU media release
Paramedics exhausted as fatigue takes toll
Paramedics, police and fire fighters rallied outside the electorate office of emergency services Minister, Bob Cameron, to protest his mistreatment of emergency workers. Ambulance Employees Australia state secretary Steve McGhie said paramedics were doing massive overtime to prop up the over-stretched services. The union says the government needs to address fatigue and overwork in the system and that more ambos and decent rest-breaks are needed now, otherwise more and more people will be driving themselves to hospital, rather than waiting for ambulances that take an age to arrive. The union says that in Melbourne there are fewer ambulances on the roads on Friday and Saturday nights because of exhaustion amongst paramedics. A report in The Age newspaper shows that on the busy and often violent weekend nights there have been up to eight ambulances off the road due to staffing issues. The union says stressed and fatigued ambos are fed up with the conditions they face.
Response Time The Age
Queensland reps get power to issue PINs
Queensland has moved to give OHS reps the power to issue Provisional Improvement Notices (PINs), bringing the rights of HSRs in Queensland more in line with other states.. Queensland Council of Unions Assistant General Secretary, Amanda Richards, congratulated the State Government on passing the laws which the QCU and affiliated unions had been lobbying for.
"Unions have been advocating for these changes for years and we are pleased to see the government act on these important issues. The issuing of PINs will allow for issues to be dealt with at workplace level in a timely manner between workers via their health and safety representative and the employer.”
QCU media release
457 visa workers deserve protection
Changes to laws governing foreign workers on s457 visas need to ensure this vulnerable workforce has the same protections that other workers are afforded. A report into the scheme commissioned by the government has recommended that information on businesses that employ 457-visa holders should be shared with OHS authorities. Currently OHS authorities typically only find out about safety problems after an incident occurs or when alerted to a situation by unions. The report notes that 457-visa holders can be in vulnerable work situations that leave them open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.
Workplace OHS The Report: Visa Subclass 457 Integrity Review [pdf]
International Union News
Canada: Gory videos don’t work for safety
Hard-hitting and sometimes gruesome videos are being used in a Canadian province in a drive to cut injuries to young workers. But unions and safety experts in Alberta have warned the initiative misses the point, blaming 'unengaged' and 'unmotivated' workers for their injuries, rather than unsafe and poorly supervised work. This is very similar to Victorian unions’ concerns with the current WorkSafe advertisements targeting young people. Barrie Harrison, a spokesperson with Alberta's employment department, says the point of using such graphic examples which are based on actual workplace incidents in the province is to grab the attention of young workers and get them thinking and talking about the dangers they face at work. However, Mark Wells, a communications officer with the Alberta Union of Public Employees, says that the whole campaign falls short because it doesn't give young workers the right information they need to stay safe at work
Via Risks Vue Weekly
South Africa: Forestry workers die in truck crash
The South African trade union body COSATU has condemned the deaths of at least 23 workers when the open truck on which they we being transported to work collided with a KFC truck. 21 forestry workers and both drivers died and nine were seriously injured in hospital. COSATU says the tragedy highlights once again the scandal of workers being taken to and from work on the back of open trucks, with no protection. In this case forestry workers were standing in the vehicle and police say that local villagers told them that this truck usually carries 60 and that more bodies might be hidden under the wreckage.
COSATU media release BWI media release
New Hazards online now
The latest edition of Hazards from Britain’s TUC is online now. It includes the terrible story of South African workers who have been stricken by manganism, a Parkinson’s disease-like condition caused by exposure to excessive levels of manganese. These ten men had been assessed by doctors and authorities as being permanently disabled as a result of their jobs in a grimy manganese smelter. But the company they worked for didn’t agree so they hired a team of doctors to revise the diagnoses to suggest they may be suffering from a host of other conditions such as alcohol and drug abuse, AIDS, stress, arthritis, diabetes… essentially anything but manganism.
Read more on their quest for justice in Hazards.
Online training module offers skills on safe computer use
Not Safe For Work is a new online training module from the UK’s TUC. It is designed to get your IT security skills up to date, and keep yourself and your workplace network safer.
Not Safe For Work
ITUC Annual World Survey: Onslaught Against Trade Unions Claimed 91 Lives
The ITUC has published its Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations revealing an appalling record of anti-union laws and violence against workers’ representatives last year. Worldwide 91 people were murdered for defending workers’ rights. Not surprisingly Colombia, where 39 people lost their lives, was the most dangerous place for unionists. Migrant workers are also at increased risk of intimidation and violence all over the world. With regard to Australia, the report makes special mention of the WorkChoices laws and their role in the demise of the Howard Government.
ITUC news release
ETUC welcomes EU agreement China on health and safety
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has welcomed the anticipated signing this week of a Memorandum of Understanding on health and safety at work by the European Union and China. Meanwhile, ETUC General Secretary John Monks called for a proper enforcement of health and safety at work provisions, necessarily involving trade union organisations acting independently of the state and employers. The ETUC said it hoped the agreement would contribute to adherence to international standards on decent work which, of course, include International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
ETUC news release
Research
Researchers suspect many mine accidents go unreported
Researchers from the University of South Australia have raised concerns that many mine accidents in Australia go unreported. They say they hope a new safety study will force mining companies to create better workplaces. Three professors from the Sleep Research Centre were involved in the study, which followed the deaths of four miners at Gretley in New South Wales in 1996. The report cites incentives based safety systems as creating a potential risk.
‘Production bonus and safety incentive schemes that involve payment in exchange for achieving particular outcome targets have not proved themselves to consistently or reliably improve safety outcomes. The confusion about the presence of such schemes evident in our interviews and in questionnaire responses suggests that any positive effects are likely to be limited at best’. – Digging Deeper Executive Summary Final Report, 5 November 2007, pg viii
Their international award winning study, Digging Deeper, resulted in the Ten Platinum Rules as an industry approach to OHS in the NSW mining sector.
ABC report
Power-Line EMFs: New Focus on Alzheimer's Disease
Swiss research points to a link between high-voltage power lines and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Martin Röösli led a team at the University of Bern who found that people who live within 50 metres of such power lines were at significantly increased risk of developing the disease. The findings also show that the longer spent living in their shadow the greater the risk, with people who lived near a 22-380 kV power line for over 15 years showing double the expected rate of death from Alzheimer’s. This study adds to a growing body of evidence linking high rates of ionising radiation exposure to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Report on Microwave News OHS Reps page on Non-ionising radiation
Award-winning musculoskeletal research on returning to work
A British researcher has received an award for an ergonomic approach to helping employees back to work after disabling musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The approach harnesses psychosocial factors to manage a condition that causes significant pain to the world’s economies, employers and employees. Psychosocial factors have received increased attention in recent years as a potential “missing link” in MSDs that can’t be explained by physical factors alone. Psychosocial factors relate to aspects of employment such as workload and pace of work, work schedules, job content, interpersonal workplace relationships and the work-home interface. The research was conducted by Dr. Kim Burton at the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at the University of Huddersfield and recommends what the researchers called a ‘biopsychosocial’ approach to getting back to work after an injury.
Ergonomics Today article
Bad bosses are bad for your heart
Inconsiderate and incompetent bosses not only make work stressful, they may also increase the risk of heart disease for their employees, new research suggests. A Swedish team found a strong link between poor leadership and the risk of serious heart disease and heart attacks among more than 3,000 employed men. And the effect may be cumulative - the risk went up the longer an employee worked for the same company. The study is published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University tracked the heart health of the male employees, aged between 19 and 70 and working in the Stockholm area, over a period of nearly a decade. During this time 74 cases of fatal and non-fatal heart attack or acute angina, or death from ischaemic heart disease, occurred. All the participants were asked to rate the leadership style of their senior managers on competencies such as how clearly they set out goals for their staff and how good they were at communicating and giving feedback. The staff who deemed their senior managers to be the least competent had a 25% higher risk of a serious heart problem. And those working for what was classed as a long time - four years or more - had a 64% higher risk.
BBC report
WorkSafe News
ASCC meets for final time
The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) met for the tenth and final time in Canberra November 20. The ASCC noted arrangements have been put in place to ensure appropriate consultative mechanisms during the transition from the ASCC to Safe Work Australia.
The Council also agreed to publish two booklets to assist in management of OHS issues arising on the waterfront once appropriate user instructions are included. These booklets can be applied nationally, and have been adopted from Victorian guidance materials. A discussion paper on options relating to plant design and a proposed approach to conformity assessment for high hazard plant was approved for public comment.
ASCC media release
Useful materials:
- From WorkSafe Victoria – Guide to safe work related driving - A handbook to workplaces: provides information on how to develop work-related driving safety policies. The guide will help employers, fleet managers and drivers with light fleet vehicles to improve their work related driving safety.
- Working safely with air receivers: New guidance focussing on the safety risks associated with air receivers - a type of pressure vessel used to store compressed air for large demands greater than a compressor’s capacity.
- ASCC releases two new fatality reports. The Notified Fatalities Statistical Report July 2007 to June 2008 provides the most recent information on work-related fatalities which are notified to occupational health and safety (OHS) authorities across Australia during the financial year. There were 150 notified workplace fatalities – however, its coverage is not complete. In most states and territories, work-related fatalities which occur on public roads are notified to the police and are not included. Four industries accounted for eight out of every ten notified work-related fatalities: construction (24 per cent), transport and storage (23 per cent), agriculture, forestry and fishing (18 per cent) and manufacturing (13 per cent). To provide a comprehensive picture of the number of people who died from injury due to work-related activity, the ASCC combines the information from the notified fatalities with workers’ compensation data and coronial information. The ASCC is also releasing the results of this analysis in the Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia, 2005-06 report. This report shows that 270 people died from injuries sustained while working, 123 from injuries on their way to or from work, and 41 as ‘bystanders’ to work activity. Both reports are available on the ASCC website.
- Occupational Health and Safety Risk Factors for Rural and Metropolitan Nurses: Comparative results from a national nurses survey - November 2008 [pdf] or [word] The Office of the ASCC conducted a survey in February 2007 on occupational exposures in Australian nurses. General results arising from the study were published in 2008 -Tim Driscoll report [pdf]. The report recommended that an in-depth comparison between rural and metropolitan participants of the survey be undertaken. This report describes the differences in perceived occupational hazards for rural (or remote) and metropolitan nurses that were found in the 2007 survey in order to inform and facilitate effective policy formulation and OHS intervention.
- Workplace Relations Ministers' Council (WRMC) endorsed the fifth edition of the Comparison of Occupational Health and Safety Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand [pdf]. The publication compares health and safety arrangements within Australia and New Zealand. It provides information for OHS specialists and policy makers across jurisdictions and is a valuable resource for multi-jurisdictional employers and health and safety practitioners, supporting sound policy and program development.
Worksafe Prosecutions
Companies plead guilty and avoid large fines over fatality
Two companies received small fines despite being convicted over safety failings which lead to the death of a worker in a crushing incident. The companies, Crystal Transport Proprietary Limited and A.R.G Proprietary Limited were joint owners of Crystal Ice, who employed the killed worker. They were convicted and fined only $30,000 and $20,000 respectively following the death of a truck driver who was crushed between the nose of a stationary prime mover and a trailer. The driver was employed by Crystal Ice. Investigations found that trucks parked wherever a spot was available and convenient, even on the wrong side of the street, and that cars passed on the trucks’ passenger sides and forklifts criss-crossed the street, posing multiple collision risks. No instructions or supervision was provided to either the company’s drivers or external drivers and there were no traffic controllers to assist in truck manoeuvring and reversing. The court found that the companies had no prior convictions, had shown remorse and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Consequently, under the Sentencing Act, they were entitled to a “Sentence discount for guilty plea”. Sadly the families of workers killed on the job don’t get a discount on their sentences for life.
VWA media release
Council guilty of unsafe systems of work
A council in eastern Victoria was convicted over its failure to provide safe work systems. Interestingly, Wellington Shire Council, was prosecuted due to the risk of injury as no incident occurred. The council had let a contract out to a provider who WorkSafe found to be operating substandard equipment on a road grading operation conducted for the council in 2005. The Court heard that the Council had not requested and was not provided with a risk assessment for the work to be done and that no job safety analysis or hazard identification and risk assessment on the use of the grader was sought. The Council pleaded not guilty. The Court found the Council guilty without conviction and sentenced it to a section 137 undertaking with the special condition that the organisation engage an auditor approved by WorkSafe to address the engagement of contractors.
VWA media release
Company convicted over forklift injuries
Operators of a timber mill in Benalla were sentenced to a range of enforceable undertakings over an incident in which a worker was run over by a forklift. Ryan & McNulty Proprietary Limited plead guilty over the incident in which a worker jumped off a moving forklift and sustained a broken ankle and keg. Instead of a fine the company agreed to a number of ‘enforceable undertakings’ as allowed under section 137 of the OHS Act. These undertakings included ensuring that it complies with its obligations under the Act, that its director, Greg McNulty, attend a five-day training course, and that the company would provide $40,000 to the Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE Benalla Campus for the purpose of it acquiring safety equipment for use in its occupational health and safety and timber industry training programs.
VWA media release
International News
Iranian unionist facing execution
Teachers, trade unionists and human rights defenders around the world are mobilising in defence of Farzad Kamangar, an Iranian Kurdish teacher and trade unionist who is at risk of execution. Education International received information from reliable sources that on 26 November Kamangar was taken from his cell 121 in ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison in preparation for execution by hanging. However, the latest information is that he is still alive and was able to meet with his lawyer Wednesday. His situation remains precarious nonetheless. Kamangar, aged 33, was sentenced to death by the Iranian Revolutionary Court on 25 February 2008 after a trial which took place in secret, lasted only minutes, and failed to meet Iranian and international standards of fairness.Education International media release
Events
LASNet Solidarity Dinner-Dance
Please note there has been a change of date and venue for this event.
Friday December 5th, from 7pm FOE Offices 312 Smith Street, Fitzroy
All proceeds in support Indigenous & workers projects in Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia and Australia. Cultural Andean music presentation of Marcelo Chimbolema, international indigenous guest from Ecuador.
$20 conc - $25 Full lasnet@latinlasnet.org
Friends of the Earth Nanotech and food event
Can the technology of the tiny help solve a giant food and economic crisis?
Speakers: Fiona Thiessen (FoE) - Nanotechnology, what is it and who is driving its use in our food?; Dr Gyorgy Scrinis (Globalism Institute - RMIT) - How technology shapes our relationship with food; Dr Kristen Lyons (Griffith University)- Developments in organic food systems, nanotechnology and the global food crisis.
When: 6.30pm Tuesday 2 December, The Salon, Abbotsford Convent, 15 Heliers Street, Abbotsford
Loss is Unavoidable: Developing support strategies for the workplace
Wednesday 3rd December 2008 10.00am – 4.00pm (registration 9.30am)
La Trobe University, 215 Franklin St Melbourne.
For more information contact :
National Association for Loss & Grief (Vic) Inc
Suite 4, Level 1 182 Victoria Parade East Melbourne Vic 3002
Tel: 03 9650 3000 Freecall (Country Vic 1800 100 023) Fax: 03 9650 5777
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. Reps should think about enrolling for courses in the new year now.
Initial 5-Day Metropolitan (for Elected OHS Reps under the Victorian OHS Act - this course is approved by the VWA under Section 67)
December 8 – 12 DEECD (Education) Carlton
December 15 – 19 Initial Carlton
January 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 Initial Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $670.00
Initial 5-Day Country
December 8 – 12 Initial Geelong
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $690.00
Comcare 5-Day OHS Reps Course (for Elected OHS Reps under the Comcare Act)
December 8 - 12 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.
December 17 - 18 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.
December 15 Legislative Update Carlton
December 16 Psychological Hazards Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 4.30pm. Course fee $180.00
Go to the 2008 Training program page to download an application form.