Browsing: Workplace safety representatives | Page 15

Workplace inspections can detect day-to-day safety issues, but employers can't rely on them to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of their broader safety management systems, a consultant warns.

Stakeholders in the harmonised states and territories are being asked to comment on whether the model WHS laws should be amended to include stricter entry rules and less prescriptive regulations - but they've been given just days to do so.

A health and safety rep was fairly sacked for backdating a job hazard analysis after his safety manager told him to, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

Safety regulators are more likely than ever to ask PCBUs for evidence of their consultation processes, and to view minutes from committee meetings, a workplace health and safety lawyer has warned.

Queensland's WHS Amendment Bill has passed through Parliament, with the Bill's architect - the Attorney-General - repeating his seemingly incongruous boast that work injury rates are falling under the current laws. Meanwhile, Safe Work Australia is keeping tight-lipped on its position on the Queensland changes.

OHS committees that conduct safety walkthroughs prior to meetings can observe real risks and improve health and safety by engaging workers, says OHS consultant Jenny Lewis.

A Parliamentary Committee recommends passing Queensland's WHS Amendment Bill, which aims to make regulators the "first port of call" for workers with safety concerns by reducing the powers of HSRs and unions, but it says employers will have to pay for additional inspectors.

Employers should conduct occasional mock safety inspections, rotating senior managers' and workers' roles in the process, to make safety more interesting to staff and identify more risks, an OHS consultant says.

With the aim of overhauling its "bureaucratic" and "ignorant" safety management system, the Royal Australian Mint devised a successful new system and engaged "safety advocates", according to the employer's HSE manager.

Queensland health and safety reps will be forbidden from halting unsafe work, unions will be hobbled by tighter entry rules, and maximum fines for electrical safety breaches will be 650 per cent higher, under a Bill introduced to the Queensland Parliament yesterday.