Safety Essentials—Winter 2011

Comcare National Seminars—Work Health and Safety harmonisation update

Comcare wrapped up its national seminar program in Canberra last week. Held throughout May across the country in 10 cities, the seminars attracted over 1300 participants.

Seminar speakers presented information to assist participants to prepare for the new Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws.

Comcare’s Project Harmony team provided an update on the harmonisation process including feedback from the public comment period. We also launched our new WHS website which includes guidance material and resources to assist organisations transition to and promote the new laws in their workplace. Communication kits for organisations are now available and you can place your order online now.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions also presented on why harmonising the WHS laws is important, the role unions will play and how they see the new laws working on the ground.

The seminar presentations and handouts are now available to download from our website.

As mentioned at the seminars, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations is now calling for comment on the Commonwealth specific provisions of the WHS Bill to be implemented in the Commonwealth jurisdiction on 1 January 2012. The comment period closes Friday 17 June 2011.

Click here to view the Commonwealth WHS Bill and for information on how to submit a comment.

Comcare National Conference

The theme of this year's Comcare National Conference is A new era in work health and safety—lead and shape for impact. The conference will be held 12–14 September at the Melbourne Convention Centre.

The three-day event will feature keynote plenary sessions presented by high profile and international industry experts. The conference will provide delegates with practical approaches to manage the transition to a new era in our industry as we work towards implementing the new work health and safety laws by January 2012. Conference speakers include:

• Dr Richard Pimentel—international expert on disability management
• Paul de Gelder—Royal Australian Navy
• Richard Rochefort—Service Canada College
• Dr Timothy Sharp (Dr Happy)—The Happiness Institute
• John Rogerson—Australian Drug Foundation
• Anna Booth—CoSolve.

More speakers will be announced soon and registration will be available early June. For further information visit the conference website.

SRCC Safety Awards finalists announced

The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) has announced the finalists of the 2011 SRCC Safety Awards. The SRCC will announce the winners during a gala dinner on Tuesday 13 September at Peninsula, Central Pier in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne. The finalists in each of the six award categories are:

Category 1: Best Workplace Health and Wellbeing Program

• Optus Pty Ltd for Health and Safety—Our Focus, Your Wellbeing

Category 2: Leadership Award for Injury or Disease Prevention and Management

• Department of Defence for Safe Delivery of Parachute Training
• Department of Immigration and Citizenship for Leadership in Health and Safety—Becoming well@work

Category 3: Best Workplace Health and Safety Management System

• CSL Limited for CSL Health, Safety and Environment Management System
• Department of Defence for OHSMS Improvement Strategy—16th Battalion
• Optus Pty Ltd for Customer Field Services—OHSMS

Category 4: Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue

• Centrelink for Scanning Operation Centre Workstations
• Department of Defence for ‘Air Force Officers’ Training School
• Department of Defence for Passenger and Air Crew Survivability
• Visionstream for National Fibre Program—Working in Remote Locations
• Visionstream for Visionstream TelePATH

• Kevin Dettmann, Border Express
• Leading Seaman Natalie Irvine, Department of Defence

b) a person with responsibility for OHS as part of their duties

• Tracey Bell, Department of Immigration and Citizenship
• Lieutenant Commander Andrew Rohrsheim, Department of Defence

Category Six: Rehabilitation and Return to Work Award
Sub-categories:

a) an organisation

• Asciano Services for Rehabilitation Tracker Success
• Border Express for Best Practice Rehabilitation and Return to Work
• Department of Defence for Royal Australian Navy Diving School
• Department of Defence for School of Military Engineering, Training Rehabilitation Wing

b) an individual

• Debbie Maher, ACT Shared Services
• Julie Sharples, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

For further information about the awards finalists visit the SRCC website.

Productivity through people conference

Comcover and Comcare are jointly hosting the Productivity though people conference in Canberra on 22 June 2011.

Conference speakers will present on the benefits of an integrated approach to risk management including employment practices, ageing workforce impacts and placing people overseas.

Registration is free but places are limited. For more information visit our events page.

Comcare's workplace bullying campaign—Don't be a silent witness

Comcare has released guidelines and tools for employers and workers aimed at preventing workplace bullying. The guidelines and resources are part of Comcare's anti-bullying campaign—Don’t be a silent witness—which aims to raise awareness of bullying at work and how to report cases under Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

A compliance audit of select organisations found a widespread lack of knowledge that:

• workers were unsure what actually constituted bullying
• bullying incidents were reportable safety incidents
• what workers options were when confronted by bullying.

Resource materials are available on Comcare's website including fact sheets, pocket guides and a Two Minute Toolbox Talk of what might constitute bullying and appropriate responses.

Click here to view resource material on bullying.

Centre of Excellence in Mental Health and Wellbeing at Work

Sharing insights and experience of working in psychological health was the focus of the first meeting of the Centre of Excellence in Mental Health and Wellbeing at Work advisory group, held recently in Canberra.

The aim of this advisory group is to bring together best thinking, drawing on research, practice and new ideas to identify solutions that meet worker needs and improve scheme outcomes in psychological health and wellbeing.

The advisory group met with Comcare staff to focus on building the capacity and confidence of employers to understand and respond early to mental illness at work. The advisory group considered approaches to primary care and how Comcare can work better with general practitioners to ensure early support and early management of the claim.

Members of the Advisory Group include Dr Peter Butterworth, Dr Peter Cotton, Professor Mark Creamer, Associate Professor Eoin Killackey, Dr Susan Long, Dr David Morton and Dr Brenda Tait.

For more information on this advisory group please contact Comcare's Work Health team on 1300 366 979 or email.

NAIDOC week

NAIDOC week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and will be held 3-10 July. NAIDOC week is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

The 2011 NAIDOC theme is about taking responsibility for our future. To control the change we need to plan and take action to make it happen. It’s our future—change: the next step is ours. For further information visit the NAIDOC website.

New training calendar

Comcare’s Learning and Development Solutions has released its training calendar for July to December 2011.

With the harmonisation of national WHS laws coming into effect as of January 2012, Learning and Development Solutions will continue to update their training content as new information becomes available. They will also be offering a range of training for specific audiences including HSRs, OHS and HR professionals, managers and employees, as well as Executive briefings for senior managers, once the legislation has been passed by parliament.

For further information on training visit Learning and Development Solutions website or email.