On 20 November 2009, Standards Australia announced the public release of the new risk management standard ISO 31000 which replaces the Australian Standard AS4360. The media release is available here and a preview of the risk management standard is available here.
Category: book
New Australian academic OHS journal
On 4 November 2009, the first edition of the Journal of Health & Safety Research & Practice began appearing in some Australian letter boxes. This is the long-awaited, and long-promised, journal produced for members of the Safety Institute of Australia. The three articles in this inaugural edition are very good but the format and the marketing is very odd.
The journal says that “[SIA] members may also access electronic copies of articles via www.sia.org.au.” Go to the page on the Safety Institute’s website for the Peer Review Journal and the page is blank.
SafetyAtWorkBlog contacted the SIA for information about any launch of the publication or media release. There is nothing currently available.
The Editor-In-Chief, Dr Stephen Cowley rightly points to the importance of communication.
“Scholarly publication is central to the communication of new work and ideas…and a fundamental tenet of scientific work is that it is subject to critical appraisal.”
But the SafetyAtWorkBlog contention is that “new work and ideas” need to be circulated much more broadly than solely in a scholarly publication limited to the members of the Safety Institute. The SIA says the content is planned to be “released” online after six months but there is a huge difference between publishing ideas and promoting ideas. One element of the SIA’s mission statement is to “promote health and safety awareness” and this means actively promote, not just publish something and see what happens.
If the SIA really wants to compete with the only other OHS journal in Australia, The Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand published by CCH Australia, it will really need a strong promotional strategy that makes the SIA journal as indispensible as CCH’s.
The justification for another peer review journal in such a small academic pool as Australia remains unclear but there is speculation that the SIA journal has come about as a result of dissatisfaction with the CCH journal.
The test for the validity of the SIA journal will be to see contributions coming from tertiary institutions from around Australia and not just from VIOSH, a school associated with the University of Ballarat, the employer of both the Editor-In-Chief and one of the two Executive Editors.
In terms of format, it is accepted that this is a first edition and that it is a work-in-progress. However this first edition has had a gestation of several years and to have only three articles, even though they are very good, seems a little thin. In the CCH journal, which has existed for decades, there is also the following
- Notes for Contributors,
- Index,
- Book Reviews,
- Obituaries,
- Court Cases, and
- a Noticeboard
Some of this content may be in a sister publication for SIA members that is also currently going to members but, as this journal is dedicated to Dr Eric Wigglesworth, at least an obituary could have been expected.
Being the first edition, the omission of an index is understandable.
The journal is published with the assistance of LexisNexis Media, a major source of legal and court reports. Surely some relevant content could have been accessed through LexisNexis although, again, maybe the SIA member publication will carry this.
If the CCH journal is used as the yardstick for OHS journals in Australia, the SIA journal is a good start. But the CCH journal should not be the benchmark being aimed at. In the 21st century, the SIA should be looking well beyond its competitors and embracing the new internet and publishing technologies to establish its own benchmark and to lead the pack, rather than follow.
The SIA is well aware of the Cochrane Collaboration and the Cochrane Library which offer a number of extra information and media services on its public health research. The SIA is not in any way the equivalent of the Cochrane sites but some of the features could be applied to enhance the value of the SIA journal and to establish a greater prominence.
The articles in the Journal of Health & Safety Research & Practice are
“Breaking the Barriers of Insider Research in Occupational Health and Safety” by Annabel Galea
“Are health and safety representatives more effective at representing their designated work group having completed a Certificate IV course in OHS?” by Gavin Merriman and Stephen P Cowley
“The fifth age of safety: the adaptive age” by David Borys, Dennis Else & Susan Leggett.
Good corporate advice tainted by poisonous product
In Matt Peacock’s book, “Killer Company“, an entire chapter is devoted to the legacy of the James Hardie chairman, John B Reid. In Peacock’s talk at Trades Hall in October 2009, he mentioned that Reid had once published a book called “Commonsense Corporate Governance”. The apparent hypocrisy of an executive of a company that knowingly sells toxic material while advising others on how to manage their corporation responsibly generated chuckles of disbelief in the Trade Hall audience.
SafetyAtWorkBlog obtained a copy of John Reid’s book to see first-hand that someone could do such a thing. A sad part of all this is that the advice in the book is sensible but Reid’s “legacy” now taints all he does and all he says.
One random example of the advice he provides concerns dealing with consultants:
“Where, as with solicitors and auditors, it is imperative for the company to retain them, company staff need to be reminded that the professional advisers are paid for on the basis of the time that they spend on the company’s business. This is not predetermined by the nature of the task. In large measure it is affected by the decisions made and by the homework done within the company. What does this mean?
First, the imposition of new and more demanding, and frequently less precise, legislation on all manner of subjects has made management and, as a result, directors, nervous about things that directors 50 years ago would have dealt with very quickly-and inexpensively. Further, the increasing number of specialists necessary within a company’s own payroll is a result of this legislative epidemic, and has produced a reinforcement of this culture of caution and, occasionally, of fear.”
Safety professionals may want to take particular note of this corporate imperative.
Peacock points to the strict confidentiality clauses that Hardie included in any settlements in the 1970s. Peacock writes (p 156)
“Secrecy indeed was Hardie’s byword, one endorsed by the chairman, who would later advise aspiring directors to ‘remain silent where there is criticism’.”
Reid recommended this in a bulleted list of ways to handle the media.
John B Reid, whose personal wealth was estimated at $A181 million in 2004, is not unique in advising companies while also having a tarnished corporate reputation. Some argue that the adjective “good businessman” is a tautology.
There is no doubt that Reid was an active philanthropist and corporate citizen. He was awarded an Order of Australia for “service to industry” – no citation is available to explain the decision. In 2006, he received the Goldman Sachs JBWere Philanthropy Leadership Award.
Greek tragedies were full of hubris and examples of the single flaw that made good men do bad things. If the plays of Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles have yet to be analysed for their advice to corporate executives, they should be, for not only do they show human flaws but human corporate flaws.
John B Reid’s book on corporate governance is an easy read and has valuable lessons but it is now a book that makes the reader feel dirty.
Revealing podcast on asbestos in Australia
On 15 October 2009, Matt Peacock, a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and author of a new book on asbestos and the James Hardie company, “Killer Company: James Hardie Exposed” spoke publicly at Trades Hall in Victoria.
Peacock has allowed an edited version of his presentation to be used as a SafetyAtWork podcast which can be downloaded. In the podcast he discusses the conduct of the James Hardie boss of several decades, John B Reid; the pervasive nature of asbestos throughout the Australian community; the surveillance of opponents by the company; the immoral public relations campaigns and, generally, the conduct of a corporation that knowingly sold a product that was toxic and harmful.
One blogger reviewed the book and said
“Killer Company” clearly shows that JH directors were criminally negligent and showed no humanity or compassion for their victims and no remorse for their crimes.
Peacock produced several reports on asbestos recently. Video and transcripts of his reports can be accessed HERE.
Peacock has also been interviewed extensively about his book. A video interview is available HERE
What Trevor Keltz gets right
Madonna has just released another greatest hits CD. Trevor Kletz has done similar in releasing the fifth edition of “What Went Wrong?” He admits that almost all of the content has appeared elsewhere. It’s been almost 20 years since I had to read Kletz’s books and articles as part of working in a Major Hazards Branch of an OHS regulator in Australia. Not being an engineer, the books informed me but were a chore. This is not the case with the last edition.
Kletz has two parts to the book. The first is a collection of short case notes recording as he says
“…the immediate technical causes of the accidents and the changes in design and methods of working needed to prevent them from happening again”.
The second discusses the weaknesses of management systems. In short, the book reflects the expanding nature of safety management over the last forty years. Kletz may be from the Olde School of safety engineers (he is 87 years old) but often one needs a fresh perspective on a profession and coming from a person with such extensive experience, Kletz is worth listening to. Thankfully, he does not sound like a grumpy old man.
Kletz notes that process industry lessons seem to fade after a few years. In my opinion this may be an effect of the transience of modern careers where corporate memory is often fragmented. It may also be due to the shipping of manufacturing and process industries off-shore and the establishment of large complexes in countries with different (lax) safety requirements. It may also be due to a corporate performance regime where maintenance is not valued or understood as that supports long term thinking rather than quite returns on investment.
Regardless of the cause, the short-term memory makes the need for such books as this as more important than never.
In anticipation of his look at management systems he notes in his preface, that management systems need maintaining and, more importantly, reading. In some circumstances, too much faith is placed in the system (I would refer to the Esso Longford explosion as an example). Kletz says all systems have limitations.
“All they can do is make the most of people’s knowledge and experience by applying them in a systematic way. If people lack knowledge and experience, the systems are empty shells.”
What Kletz does not write about is human error because, as he says, “all accidents are due to human error”. He avoids making the weak logic jump that the behaviouralists make where, “if all accidents are due to human error then fix the human and you fix the hazard”. Kletz devotes a whole chapter to his classification of human errors as
- Mistakes;
- Violations or noncompliance;
- Mismatches;
- Slips and lapses of attention.
This edition of “What Went Wrong?” provides a baseline for the safety concepts we have come to accept but also a critical eye on safety and manufacturing management shortcomings. The style is very easy to read although occasionally repetitive. Thankfully the process technicalities are avoided unless they relate to the technical point Kletz is making. I found part B hugely useful but it is recommended for all safety professionals.
Imminent release of OHS model law draft
In the film Mrs Doubtfire, it was said that her husband’s concept of foreplay was “Effie, brace yourself.” Australian safety professionals should follow Mr Doubtfire’s advice for, according to a media release from Safe Work Australia:
The Safe Work Australia Council met in Sydney today (18 September 2009) to consider a suite of draft documents on model occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation.
Mr Tom Phillips, Safe Work Australia Council Chair, said that this was a significant development in the harmonisation of OHS laws around Australia.
The Council agreed to recommend to the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC) that it approve the release of a suite of documents for a public comment period of six weeks.
“We have reached a key milestone proving Safe Work Australia is on track to deliver national OHS laws by December 2011,” said Mr Phillips.
The documents to be made available for public comment will include an exposure draft of the model OHS Act, discussion paper, key administrative Regulations and the consultation Regulation Impact Statement.
To continue the Doubtfire analogy, let’s look forward to the post-coital glow of legislative harmony, industrial peace and safe workplaces.
[Note: the original book, Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine, is very funny too but in a less Robin-Williams sort of way. KJ]
The changing asbestos campaigns
As the incidence of asbestos-related diseases increases, the issues associated with asbestos have evolved beyond occupational health and safety.
The corporate conduct of James Hardie Industries and the prosecuting of its directors by the Australian Government had asbestos as the product around which corporate misbehaviour occurred. The prosecution has not improved the lot of the victims. The compensation fund which the director’s lied about will still be inadequate to deal with work-related claims.
Asbestos has become a true public-health hazard and issue, in a similar way that lead went from work to the community or even, perhaps, how cigarette smoke went from the personal to the public. Increasingly, useful results will be gained from lobbying the government through the public health sphere rather than through OHS.
Today in Tasmania, Matt Peacock‘s book called “Killer Company” was launched with the support of the Australian Workers’ Union. According to a media release in support of the event, the AWU National Secretary Paul Howes will “call for the creation of a federal National Asbestos Taskforce to manage the prioritised recall of all asbestos containing materials in all forms from the nation.”
Howes says
“The Federal Government must establish a national body with a regulatory mandate to map priority areas for asbestos product removal, such as schools and public places, and oversee its careful and total removal.”
“A National Asbestos Taskforce could facilitate and resource an Asbestos Summit, to bring together industry leaders, regulatory bodies and the nation’s top medical asbestos disease experts. Together with Governments, state, federal and local, such a summit could identify urgent priority areas for asbestos removal and develop a national strategy to deal with this ‘slow burn’ national emergency once and for all.”
Businesses in Australia must have an asbestos register but Paul Howes is also calling for
“…the establishment of a National Asbestos Register for all Australians ill from, or exposed to asbestos. He will also call for the establishment of a Register of all priority areas linked to a national Asbestos Present in Buildings Register.”
“We believe that [an] actuarial study will show that it is cheaper to remove asbestos containing materials completely from Australia, than fund the extraordinary medical cost of treating thousands of Australians contracting very serious asbestos-related disease over some decades to come.”
Unions have a proud history of effecting social change. Asbestos fits this tradition as it concerns the spread of a manufacturing component that is, arguably, going to have more of a social cost than it ever had as a social benefit.
There is enough of a social awareness of the complexity of issues related to asbestos that traction should be achievable with the government on a public health scheme. The challenge for the union movement and asbestos-safety advocates is that the campaigns still need to convince the whole community that this cannot be dismissed as a “union issue” but is a public health issue “championed by the unions”.
As more and more cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma start appearing in people who have not been involved in manufacturing or using asbestos, or washing the dust out of clothing, or living near asbestos mines, the seriousness of the health hazard will become evident. But we should not have to wait till then and a socially-aware government as the Rudd Labor Government in Australia claims to be should be able to acknowledge the sins and mistakes of the past and plan for the future, as it has done on other social concerns.
A video and audio interview with Matt Peacock is available online .
UPDATE: 17 September 2009
Tasmania’s Minister for Workplace Relations, Lisa Singh, has released a media statement about her launch of Matt Peacock’s book. In the statement she outlines her government’s action on asbestos:
“Shortly after becoming the Minister for Workplace Relations, I arranged a forum on Asbestos which was held by Workplace Standards on the 18th of March this year.
“A whole of Government Steering Committee was established following the forum and will make recommendations to me later this year.
The Committee is considering a range of issues including prioritised removal, mandatory reporting and disclosure, disposal, current legal and compensation issues and community awareness and education.
An audio report on the call for asbestos registers by the AWU was in the ABC Radio program AM on 17 September 2009 and is available online.