Last year, Workplace Inspectors conducted over 50,000 inspections and issued more than 30,000 safety notices across Australia. In that same time Workplace Health and Safety departments carried out over 500 prosecutions with offenders ordered to pay over $10 million in fines. Have you ever wondered why, when an inspector conducts an inspection at your workplace they won’t supply a written confirmation that your workplace is now meeting all of your OH&S obligations? Many business managers are getting a false sense of security when an inspector arrives. Inspectors are usually targeting specific risks, and these are usually limited to risks that can be visually inspected with ease. This does not relieve or indemnify an employer of their obligations. In the past twelve months targeted campaigns have included: Manual Handling Equipment guards Health Care practitioners Construction house keeping Farm machinery For the best OHS Work Method Statements and Safe Work Procedures visit Safety Culture. Workplace Prank A leading hand and a cleaner at the Inghams Enterprises meat processing plant dunked a 23 year old woman into a large wash tub as a practical joke. The leading hand wasn’t aware that the tub’s cold water had been replaced with hot, and once the woman began to scream, the two men helped her from the tub and immediately began to hose her down with cold water. The woman received first, second and third degree burns. Both men were charged and convicted in the Chief Industrial Magistrate’s Court (CIM). A third person was also found convicted who was found to have played a role by standing by as the incident occurred. John Grayson, General Manager of WorkCover, said “The conviction of the third defendant sends a clear message that not only are the persons who carry out unlawful acts responsible, but those persons who encourage and actively assist in an unsafe ‘practical joke’ may also be liable to criminal convictions.” Matter No 97/1517 Chief Magistrates Court Consequences The convictions of three employees and the sustained injuries to a fourth had immediate and dramatic implications to the processing plants operations. Additionally, insurance premiums would be increased over the following several years after an incident such as this. After any traumatic event in the workplace, all directly and non directly effected persons need to be offered counselling to deal with psychological consequences. Replacement staff would have to be supplied to fill any time off required by the four staff members. The financial cost overall cost of such a seemingly ‘harmless’ event would be in the tens of thousands of dollars. How it could have been avoided? The best way to deal with workplace pranks, skylarking or fooling around is by having a creed or code of behaviour in writing and then communicated to all staff. Educating your staff on the consequences, tell the stories, provide examples of why we need to work in a safe manner. Even if you only have a 20 minute Health & Safety meeting once a month to communicate this message and also find out from your staff how it can be implemented even better. Having a signed document backed up with a working implementation programme ensures that your employees understand their responsibilities, thus in tern balancing the obligation to work safely and effectively between the employer and the employee. For more OHS News and OHS Information visit http://www.ohspolicy.com/news.htm Below you will find all about whats been going on in the WBS office. Alexander Body Works have been established for thirty years, and are leaders in the crash repair industry. WBS has provided Alexander Body Works with a OH&S System and Employee Management System, that allowed them to continue to provide first class service to their customers, and by clearly communicating their expectations to their team, everyone is committed to delivering a high standard of service. As their business grows their system dependent structure continues to grow with it, ensuring customers receive first class service on time, every time. One week after the WBS system was implemented an Industrial Relations Inspector conducted an intensive random audit, and by having an Occupational Health & Safety System in place, Alexander’s were given the green light. Read more Alexander Body Works – www.alexanderbodyworks.com.au Ansell Chiropractic Darryl Ansell and his team understand the importance of systems. After all the best machine on earth (our body) relies on nine different systems, all working in synchronicity in order to function. Having an effective Occupational Health & Safety System was a must for Darryl, but by implementing the WBS Employee Management System, Darryl has paved the way for every new team member to be given the same training and induction from the very beginning. Read more Ansell Chiropractic - www.ansellchiropractic.com.au The X Factor July 2005 Could employee down time be reduced simply by your tone of voice? In 1997 a study was conducted to determine which doctors (if any) were more likely to be sued by patients. The study was published in the American Medical Association Journal and was conducted by Wendy Levinson. For the first time ever, a study dissected individual elements that contributed to ‘why’ someone made a claim. In this particular study the claim was in relation to medical malpractice. The research revealed that the majority of people injured as a result of medical negligence never make a claim for damages. So what differences were there between those who did and those who didn’t make a claim? Alice Burkin, a medical malpractice lawyer states that, “people don’t ever come in and ask to sue their family doctor who they really like. They always want to sue ‘a specialist’ or ‘this doctor’, they often describe their experience with the practitioner as ‘rushed’ and say ‘they never took the time to find out what was really the problem.’”. She recorded the conversations between Doctors and their patients. As a result Levinson found that Doctors who had never been sued spent 3.5 minutes longer on average with their patients, they were more likely to take an interest in the patient rather than simply treating the symptoms. The doctors would say things like, “tell me more about that”, and asked “how does that make you feel?” These same doctors were more likely to be humorous during the visit, and interestingly enough, didn’t give the patients any better medical advice, they didn’t tell their patients any more about their conditions than the first group, the difference was simply how they made the patient feel. The video from this study was broken down further by psychologist Nalini Amady. Amady took 10 second audio clips from each of the doctors and put them to a panel of judges. The audio was judged on four qualities; warmth, hostility, dominance and anxiousness. Based on only the score received for these four qualities alone, Amady was able to determine which doctors had been sued and which one’s hadn’t. At is most simplistic level, the research was broken down to the level of dominance in the tone of voice that the doctor communicated with. If the level of dominance was considered high, then the doctor was more likely to be sued. So what does this tell us? Surely people don’t determine how injured they are by how their doctor speaks to them? No perhaps not, but it does demonstrate that people’s willingness to move on with their life, rather than battle for a claim is in part linked to whether they feel their needs are being valued and that someone is giving them the attention that we all live for. Could there be any parallels between a patient’s willingness to make a claim in a medical negligence case, and an injured worker’s willingness to return to work and move on with their life? Some employees will make a claim over a paper cut, and others will break their leg and then return to work as soon as practical. What is the difference? Do employers who take an interest in the wellbeing of their employees have less claims? Could it be as simple as employers taking the time to ask how their employees are doing, showing employees that they value their contributions through effective OH&S systems, either by being proactive with workplace safety initiatives, involving employees in work safe programs, and then be there for employees if by chance they do become injured at work? Who would have thought that a doctor’s likelihood of being sued was related to how dominating their tone of voice was when communicating to patients? Could it be this simple? Surely not. Every day I hear examples of employers not being proactive when dealing with workplace safety. Recently I was told of a Courier company that unknowingly employed a man with an epileptic condition. Within a week the employee had a fit behind the wheel and phoned the office once the fit was over. He was told to catch a cab home, and they would collect the vehicle. He never heard from the company again. Having an effective OH&S System would have firstly provided the employer with relevant medical conditions about the employee, and then in the event of an accident, provided an appropriate incident response as a minimum. Choose any company in Australia, take the people out of it, and there have a look at what is left. People are integral to business, yet often they are used as a commodity rather than an asset. Could simply taking an interest in the people that work for us reduce workplace claims and make businesses more efficient and productive? I believe the answer is yes. Keep informed with OHS News