Health & Safety

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On Friday 24 March, Western Bulldogs kicked off their 2016 premiership defence with a tenacious win against Collingwood. Round 1 of the 2017 AFL season also coincided with the introduction of the WorkSafe Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 (VIC).

This Bill includes changes to the rules by which WorkSafe Victoria can prosecute alleged indictable offences against the OHS Act outside the current two year limitation period.…
Continue Reading Victorian OHS enforcement: why change the game plan when your team is on top?

boxing-gloves-375473Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey was at the top of her field, training hard and winning harder.  Her success had built her brand.  So much so that she diversified into acting with parts in two big budget, big publicity movies. Then it happened. Her reputation did not match her performance. Immediately the questions started – would she come back?

As the saying goes ‘the bigger you are the harder you fall’.…
Continue Reading Would you survive a knockout?

Phone

Are you getting the best advice when it comes to health and safety compliance?

When we deliver legal briefings, both in Australia and internationally, top-of-mind for Boards and Senior Executives is the health, safety and welfare of people affected by their operations. This is how it should be – so everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief (insert sigh).
When it comes to seeking commercially sound legal advice on these issues – whose advice should you be seeking?…
Continue Reading A word of advice, on advice

PokemonOur colleagues in the US recently published an article on Pokémon GO, Nintendo’s augmented reality game involving scrambling around real-world locations to ‘catch’ virtual beasts with your smart phone. (There’s a sentence I’ll never write again!).

The article explains that, despite the game’s popularity, employers have cause for concern in relation to data and security…

LuggageA takeover of one business by another can be a lot like a visit from your mother-in-law.

On Mother’s Day, we enjoy a cup of tea or a glass of bubbles with our mums in recognition of all their hard work and sacrifice. We give thanks for the tips, advice, guidance and life-long lessons only they can proffer. I recall with great fondness my Mum’s unwavering enthusiasm during the tears, tantrums and pre-stage jitters of my jazz-ballet/hip/funk/tap performances. For Mum, an exhaustive commitment of pick-ups and drop-offs, elaborate hair do’s, dress rehearsals and toe-tapping her way through yet another Robert Palmer tribute. Every time, through the haze of Cedel Hairspray Extra Firm, there was my Mum. …
Continue Reading Mum’s the word on safety during takeovers

Getting access to a service provider can be like a game of snakes and laddersPhone.

A colleague in our office has been trying to update her new bank details with a service provider. Her attempts to provide that information and resolve the issue have been challenging to say the least.

Interactions included numerous unsuccessful calls to their customer service line, navigating through complex main menu options, voice recognition failings, and the final assault, enduring the repetitive melody of some 16th century/German-born composer during lengthy wait times.…
Continue Reading Are your HSE reporting processes a game of snakes and ladders?

15 Australian workers have been killed so far in 2016, and based on statistics below, an additional 175 people may die in work related incidents this year.

Workplace fatality stats

Whilst many organisations properly devote vast resources and time to managing health and safety, and have processes in place to respond in a time of crisis, many don’t have a plan for managing the people issues during a crisis.…
Continue Reading Confronting the confronting questions

Seyfarth Shaw is excited to announce that Jane Hall has joined the firm as a partner from Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Jane is one of the country’s leading health and safety lawyers, with almost 20 years’ experience in the public and private sectors.

Jane has extensive experience in both litigation and advisory work and has been…

The NSW work health and safety regulator has brought a successful prosecution against a company director resulting in a criminal conviction and fines against the director and the company. An order was also made requiring the director to pay the costs of the prosecution. It appears that this is the first such successful prosecution under the harmonised Federal safety legislation in NSW. However, the fines imposed in this case ($15,000 against the director and $150,000 against the company) were low given the specific circumstances of the case.…
Continue Reading Director prosecution and conviction in New South Wales

Bullying behaviour comes in all shapes and sizes.  Identifying and deciding how to respond to diverse bullying behaviour by a worker (or workers) can create challenges for employers.

Recent headlines have cautioned that unfriending on Facebook could be considered bullying. That this seemingly innocuous action has been elevated to “bullying” has been the subject of many concerned water-cooler discussions since hitting the mainstream press.…
Continue Reading Death threats and unfriending – what is bullying?