Chronic pain affects one in three people and has a "profound" impact on the workplace, but a major study of nearly 35,000 workers has found that supervisors who create trusting environments can significantly reduce recurring pain among subordinates.
Too few workplace health and safety professionals are trained in how to design and introduce prevention programs to tackle health risks, international researchers have found.
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.
An employer that has a limited budget, and relies on workers to run a number of health and wellbeing programs, has seen program participation rates skyrocket from 12 to 90 per cent in five years.
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.
National Mental Health Commission chair Professor Allan Fels has called for employers to prioritise reducing the "huge impact" of mental ill health on productivity, and released a major report outlining six strategies for creating mentally healthy workplaces.
A parliamentary committee has warned that a gap in safety legislation is exposing FIFO workers to bullying and other risks at accommodation facilities, and accused Rio Tinto of 'underplaying' the impact of FIFO work on mental health.
