Category: Occupational Health and Safety

Victoria will soon become the fourth Australian jurisdiction (following Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory) to introduce workplace manslaughter offences. The Workplace Safety Legislation Amendment (Workplace Manslaughter and other matters) Bill 2019 will become law in Victoria on 1 July 2020. What are these new workplace manslaughter laws in Victoria? An expansion…

Employers are legally responsible for ensuring that they do not expose (or allow employees to be exposed) to an unreasonable risk to their health and safety. If an employee is directed or allowed by arrangement to work from home, that obligation follows them home.  While it is usually not difficult to set up and manage…

Download the 6 tips. Pop on your walking boots and get out your pens. This guideline will help you identify some obvious, and some less obvious, ergonomic hazards in your workplace – potentially saving your workers and you much heartache. Simply print out these practical tips and take a walk around. With the tips in…

Bounce in trampoline injuries The Highs and Lows of having fun: 8 things to look out for Trampolines have been a well loved staple of the Australian backyard for decades – so loved are they that trampoline parks have started to pop up all over the country. Lately though, trampolines have been in the news…

The arrival of storm season is a good time to brush up on storm safety principles for your workplace. There are numerous fatalities and injuries throughout Australia every year that can be directly attributed to thunderstorm activity. Many of these tragedies take place at work and could be avoided with proper thunderstorm risk procedures in…

We all know we need to be assessing and managing risk in the workplace. The law is extremely clear that risk assessment is one of the key responsibilities of business owners and managers. Using the guidance provided by the Code of Practice for manual handling/manual tasks relevant to your state/territory is one of the most…

Recently our Managing Director, Ted Dohrmann, spoke with the folks over at Manufacturer’s Monthly about why ergonomics is so important in the workplace. Even if you don’t work in a manufacturing/industrial setting, safety in the workplace is a priority for us all, and the article has some great tips on how to get it right….

First aid is an essential part of health and safety compliance. As an employer, you are required to provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe working environment and adequate facilities for the welfare of employees. This includes having appropriate first aid measures in place, including first aid kits and suitably trained first aid…

Contemporary lifestyle habits commonly find us looking down for large portions of the day – whether it be reading the paper, using apps on our phones, writing notes, referring to notes whilst typing, or even falling asleep on the train (even if there is a comfortable shoulder or not-so-comfortable window to lean on). Prolonged periods…

Feeling old? You’re probably sitting too much In keeping with our theme of older workers, did you know that sitting for 10 hours a day with less than 40 mins of exercise can age your cells by up to 8 years? A study recently completed at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine…