Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Lecture 5
Occupational Health and Safety
Introduction:
each year in Australia
2,900 work related deaths
650,000 work related injuries economic losses $34Billion
Physical hazards
Chemical and other hazardous substances
Ergonomic hazards
Psychosocial hazards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIQQhqpVY80
Show first few seconds, then From 30 mins > 41
Implications
Rarely one single cause - Human error involved
Latent factors
organisational characteristics, even aspects of public
policy (training or regulation) broad concept
cuc iu tra ch ra
tht bi c h thng
Reporting Culture
Reporting culture is when people are prepared to
report errors, near misses, unsafe conditions,
inappropriate procedures and any other concerns
they may have about safety
Some concerns:
Reporting ones own errors can lead to disciplinary action
Importance of no blame or aka just culture (another
aspect of SC).
Yet no blame is incompatible with performance
management (accountability) culture
Tensions with pluralism unitarist assumptions
Also in tension with new HRM practices, esp PM
2. Consultative arrrangements
Australian Regulation
Principles: Employers Duty of Care.
requirement for everything reasonably practicable to be
done to protect the health and safety of the workplace
10
Harmonisation process
Labor 2008 began harmonisation
Used Victorian legislation as a model
NSW held out
wanted right to jail employers
Strong right of entry for unions and to close
down a business
all state governments (except Western Australia)
agreed to enact legislation identical to the federal
model Act by the end of 2011
Not completed yet complex mix of state regulations,
moving towards national harmonisation based on
Federal WHS Act
11
Workers Compensation
Workers compensation and rehabilitation legislation
provides for compensation to injured employees,
regardless of who is responsible for the workplace
illness or injury
Injured workers are entitled to (1) compensation for
lost wages while injured and medical and related
expenses, and (2) be offered suitable duties or their
pre-injury employment to help the rehabilitation of
injured workers and safeguard them against dismissal
Return to work approach is based on the joint
assumptions that it will benefit injured workers and
reduce the costs of compensation
12
Home-based work
need policies because its a workplace yet employers
often cant control should they be liable?
Technology can be a trap inability to break free from
work (smartphones; iPads)
13
Workplace Bullying
Hard to define Kramar (p. 133):
Bullying at work: workplace bullying is
any behavior that is repeated, systematic and directed towards an
employee or group of employees that a reasonable person,
having regard to the circumstances, would expect to victimize,
humiliate, undermine or threaten which creates risk to health and
safety
14
15
Case Study
View this Documentary (10 minutes): the Human Cost of
Workplace Bullying in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=HA49hYJiGsU&spfreload=10
WA Ambulance will be the case study next week.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4345509.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-24/families-of-deadparamedics-call-for-st-john-ambulance-to-change/
7244088
Conclusion
OHS is changing but its difficult to be optimistic on
the analysis of this lecture
Shift from detailed, standards regulation and
inspection, to process regulated self regulation, in
context of light touch regulation creates difficulties
At the same time, new hazards associated with work
reorganisation (outsourcing, offshoring,
intensification) and new management techniques
Psychosocial hazards particularly difficult redress
difficult to get
Continued decline in job quality likely
Not just a workplace, but a public health issue
16
References
Kramar,et al, 2014, ch 4
Parliament of Australia (2012) Workplace Bullying: We just want it to
stop. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education
and Employment, Canberra http://www.aph.gov.au/
Parliamentary_Business/Committees/
House_of_Representatives_committees?url=ee/bullying/report.htm
Quinlan, M (2007) Organisational restructuring/downsizing, OHS
regulation and worker health and wellbeing, International Journal of
Law and Psychiatry, 30, 385-399
Reason, J. (1997), Managing the Risks of Organisational Accidents,
Aldershot: Ashgate
Walters, D et al, (2011) Regulating Workplace Risks: A Comparative
Study of Inspection Regimes in Times of Change, UK: Edward Elgar,
chs 1-5, 12-13, passim
17