FAQs Scenarios and Penalties
Why aren’t people just safe? We used to know how to do things using common sense without getting hurt and the younger generation expects us to spell it out for them.
Most of the people I’ve met who say this have part of a finger missing or bad backs or knees... good safety practices have always been an absolute necessity if you cared about the humans in your workforce. For a while now, it’s also been law, and the laws are changing rapidly. Everyone should have a left and right knee, not a good and bad knee, and the normal amount of pain after work should be none.
What can I do to make the boss responsible for the unsafe things going on in the warehouse/construction site/front office?
You have a right to representation by a Health and Safety Representative if there is a group of workers who share similar tasks, hours of work and face the same hazards. Ask for a representative election process to be held.
I’ve heard a lot about Silicosis being the new Mesothelioma/Asbestosis. Is it safe to work with cement or clay products anymore?
Working with products containing a certain amount of silica requires controls for workers to be put in place to ensure their safety. Contact us or your WorkSafe regulator for more information.
If it’s something that’s just part of the job, and always will be, what's the point in doing or saying anything?
Certain hazards like noise, occupational violence, working with chemicals, and working with animals aren’t always able to be completely removed or eliminated from an occupation, however, there are always other controls to be considered, and that should form part of a risk assessment in a business that is unable to eliminate dangerous hazards.
Why is the inspector issuing a heap of notices, they previously just gave us a list of things to fix?
After several significant incidents, such as the Dreamworld fatalities, formwork and scaffold collapses, and increasing deaths in the Agricultural industry, most state regulators realised that enforcement needed to be measurable to ensure that the success of campaigns iinhigh risk industries and hard compliance action was having an effect. With dwindling numbers of inspectors and an increase in workloads, notices are also an effective way of securing compliance on a site and going on to the next site. This isn’t new either, these sections of the legislation have been in the WHS Act since harharmonisation the Act began in 2011.
Is psychosocial legislation just for all the ‘snowflakes’ in jobs now?
Like the people with de-tipped fingers and bad backs, we have known about psychosocial or mental injuries for over 100 years, since'shelll shock’ was discovered in veterans returning from wars. Since COVID, Human Resource departments in Australia have seen a 20% increase in complaints about bullying, harassment, and other inappropriate workplace behaviours leading to mental health injuries, because people who were locked down forgot how to just be nice and apolitical at work. Middle manager burnout is in the news.
Social media is empowering normal people to stand on political platforms and be heard where they normally wouldn’t have been, which flows over into lunchroom and watercooler chats. None of this belongs in the workplace. If it were normal for a worker to experience sleep disturbances and negative pressures on their home life, work wouldn’t continue to exist, and the most toxic companies are losing large numbers of skilled workers.
“I’ve heard of the word snowflake (SIC). I think sociopaths use it in an attempt to discredit the notion of empathy.” John Cleese
Scenario 1
Joel works in an auto-mechanic workshop. He’s asked to go and get some engine coolant from the storeroom, which doubles as the lunch room. Joel is an apprentice, so he’s keen to do the right thing and do it quickly. While he’s in there, he grabs a quick sip out of the sports drink bottle in the fridge. He drinks a corrosive that leaves him in an induced coma for a week while his throat heals.
Penalty - Likely a prosecution for failure to provide safe systems of work, and an infringement for failing to maintain a hazardous chemical register.
The penalty to the workplace is usually a complete loss of reputation and likely many issues with future workforce members.
Scenario 2
Judy is a magistrate in the family court. She’s a very experienced member of her field but has been doing the work of two people for over a year now due to absences. The types of cases she experiences and has to provide judgement on are weighing on her in her down-time, affecting her relationships and sleep. She is medicated by a specialist, however, one night she takes an overdose of her sleep medications.
Penalty - likely a prosecution for failure to provide a safe workplace, and failure to meet psychosocial regulations.
The human penalty in this case needs no expansion.
Scenario 3
Rudy is a warehouse supervisor at a major food distribution company. Due to COVID related illnesses and a lack of time to train staff who have recently moved out of their regular work into supply, he is often required to either drive the trucks or operate the forklift. He works longer hours than the awardee and is often fatigued and sore. He has also tried to raise the issue of the hours, the lack of trained staff performing roles that could injure someone, and some unsafe and inappropriate customer behaviours. He is reminded of his KPIs and told that if he keeps ‘putting in’ he might get the manager role that is currently vacant. A person is injured by an unskilled forklift operator, and Rudy is told that is the reason he was unsuccessful for the manager role.
Penalty - this complexity of overlapping workplace hazards opens the business and its officers to prosecution for negligence, failure to consult with workers, psychosocial hazards such as poor change management, ineffective performance management, role overload, inadequate staff training, and improper handling of materials.
The human penalty in this case also needs no expansion.
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