Employers are being urged to assess whether their work processes are encouraging employees to break safety rules, after a Safe Work Australia report found a link between risk taking and high fatality and injury rates.
Employers can take numerous steps to ensure their workers are safe and act appropriately at end-of-year celebrations, and are being reminded of cases that show the consequences of failing to do so.
The most highly-developed safety systems and plans will still fail if employers don't get the "people" component of their approach right, a safety professional says.
The Australian Drug Foundation has found that three per cent of workers have sustained an injury after drinking too much at a work function - a figure that shows injuries or other incidents that expose employers to claims are highly probable at any work Christmas party.
Employers must ensure they have adequate resources to prevent or manage medical issues faced by workers who travel internationally - and it isn't just high-risk regions they need to worry about, US researchers have found.
European researchers have found shift work impairs workers' cognitive functioning, and warn the problem could have a significant impact on safety outcomes as the number of shift-work roles increases.
An employer says it has made its workplace safer by introducing seven "safehaven" rules, and reduced its total recordable injury frequency rate by 30 per cent.
