A national employer reduced the number of provisional improvement notices issued by HSRs at its Victorian sites by 87 per cent, under a program designed to improve the relationship between safety reps and frontline leaders, the annual Safety Psychology Conference has heard.
In this update, OHS Alert examines the most important workplace safety and workers' comp news from the third quarter of 2014, including Safe Work Australia's controversial decision to dump draft Codes of Practice in favour of guidance packages, and other legislative developments.
A new Safe Work Australia report has found that regulators conducted 135,000 workplace visits and handed out nearly 47,000 notices in 2012-13, but the number of reactive visits is decreasing in some jurisdictions.
Employers can take three simple steps to ensure workers aren't using their mobile phones while walking near mobile plant or in other hazardous situations, says Mark Ritchie of the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Victorian employers have been fined nearly $500,000 after an excavator operator was killed in a landslide, and other incidents, while a man has been fined for obstructing safety inspectors.