Comments on: Safety profession needs to counter the influence of the red tape ideologues https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/ Award winning news, commentary and opinion on workplace health and safety Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:00:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 By: Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1800 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:00:12 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1800 Col, I attended an ISSA conference some years ago and was very impressed. It showed me the social cost of safety in both Westernised and developing nations.

What I am looking for, and hope to get from the upcoming Safety In Action Conference in Melbourne, is for a safety organisation, or other lobbying body, to take the evidence you provide, and that is available elsewhere, and challenge each mention of OHS red tape by Government and the business lobbyists.

If the Safety Institute of Australia or the National Safety Council of Australia or Safety In Workplaces Australia aren’t prepared to fight for OHS and the flow-on member benefits, we should be asking why do they exist? If they are there simply to provide services for their members, that’s okay, but it leaves an opportunity for an independent and authoritative OHS voice.

]]> By: colrf https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1799 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:45:05 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1799 There’s a number crunching report on the way from the International Social Security Association (ISSA). They are a European group, linked to the insurance industry that has been around since 1927. Amongst other things they are the co-sponsors of the ISSA/ILO World Safety and Health Congress, a pretty flash international OHS conference.

Quoting from the ISSA web site: “In 2010, the…ISSA, the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), and the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the Energy, Textile, Electrical and Media Products Sectors (BG ETEM) initiated an international study on “Calculating the international return on prevention for companies: Costs and benefits of investments in occupational safety and health” “. Last year they presented the summary results from the study at the XIX World Safety and Health Congress (in Turkey).

The big number in that summary indicates that the return on OHS investment runs at a pretty serviceable 1:2.2 ratio. Yep, they have all the expected “qualifications” about the preliminary report findings, but the ratio seems about right to me: one buck on OHS delivers $2.20 in efficiency gains.

For mine, the bonuses of good OHS has stuck out like dog’s balls for years. But the facts seem to be that OHS-World got locked into a tech-head, ethics orientation to ostensibly “sell” itself (it probably wasn’t possible for it to go any other way); but here we are 40 or so years down the track from Robens and the hard-core bottom line is being looked at. Oh well, better late than never.

I’ve included a link to the ISSA summary report and the ISSA has said that the full report is expected to be ready in about June this year.

http://tinyurl.com/6c7ooge

]]> By: V.V.Mahesh Kumar https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1798 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:36:19 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1798 Further to my above comments, the document at following link may be useful while talking about business case for safety management. A borrowed quotation from the introduction chapter is,
‘If you think safety is expensive, try an accident…’ is a familiar adage in the process industries.’

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/25/49865614.pdf

]]> By: V.V.Mahesh Kumar https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1797 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:21:42 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1797 Those who oppose OHS should visit history of the movement for factory legislations. These legislations did not come overnight but were evolved over decades. Each of the clause represents suffering of many workmen somewhere, sometime earlier. These rules and regulations are nothing but lessons learnt from past accidents. Only very few of the existing regulations resulted from forethought.
Those who forget the past are bound to suffer later. Economic growth will be a reality only when safety of the workforce is ensured. Otherwise, someday organization(s) face closure and today’s opponents of introduction of legislation for better workplace will become proponents later for the same.

]]> By: Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1796 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:18:49 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1796 In reply to Martin.

Martin, thanks for challenging me.

I have re-read the WorkCover Minister’s media release and Gordon Rich-Phillips talks generally about the potential economic impact of “the laws” until in paragraph 4 he mentions:

“…the final National Regulatory Impact Statement was released four months behind schedule, and does not quantify the impacts on Victoria as promised…”

Whether he is referring specifically to the WHS Regulations is open to interpretation.

The Premier’s recent comments on COAG do not specify Regulations.

The Regulatory Impact Statement that deals with the WHS Regulations also addresses costs associated with Codes of Practice so often it is unclear what is being referred to. Also Victoria has some cost increases with some processes, such as the re-imposition of risk assessments, but is cost neutral on others.

Perhaps this clarity of details is what Victoria is seeking in its review but the Government has been very guarded on the terms of reference for the PwC review and so it is difficult to anticipate what the review findings will be.

]]> By: Martin https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1795 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 06:31:34 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1795 Your argument is flawed. The RIS report you refer to is only for the WHS Act, which was written in 2009. At that time, we could only suspect, but not know about the abomination that WorkSafe would creeate with the regulations.

The root of the fallacy is that you appear to lump the WHS Act and the Regulations together under the generic label of the “legislation”.

As far as I can tell, Victoria was OK with the Act at the time, as was I. Although for me, being a cynic and all, lumping “registration” process under the heading of “authorisations” together with “licencing” gave me concern that some in government were quietly creating with the Act a capability to bring back good ole fashioned “approvals” under the Regs that were yet to be revealed. As it turned out, that is exactly what happened.

What Victoria has a problem with as far as i can tell is the Regulations. And that is a different RIS, which is frankly, pretty poor. The Vic’s should know the problems because they wrote the regs that the WHS regs were supposedly intended to be based on.

You need to get the RIS details straight.

]]> By: Mervyn Sher https://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/03/23/safety-profession-needs-to-counter-the-influence-of-the-red-tape-ideologues/#comment-1794 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:33:51 +0000 http://safetyatworkblog.com/?p=9985#comment-1794 The reality is always in the bottom line – ” an economic argument that occupational health and safety is profitable”.

]]>