Managing Covid 101

WOSH Duty – identify operations that expose workers to Covid .e.g health care and implement reasonably practicable controls. 1 – eliminate exposure e.g. don’t take passengers in cab of tow truck/ work from home 2- isolate e.g. install physical barriers in a taxi 3 – substitute e.g. online/ telephone vs face to face 4 – … Read more

Toll Data Breach – A Warning for Others

Under the banner of chain of responsibility employers in the transport industry are coercing transport operators and drivers to hand over personal and commercially sensitive information e.g. licenses, vehicle data and travel information, without any legal basis to do so. If you do this you are required to keep that information secure. If it leaks … Read more

Industrial Manslaughter and Contractor Management

A topic grabbing everyone’s attention at the moment is industrial manslaughter and as always fear is in the air. Principal Contractors may think the best course of action is to take more control of contractors operations when the opposite is needed. The more control you take the more liability you have. Make sure your contractors … Read more

COR Vehicle Maintenance Obligations – Don’t Get Spooked

I have just read in an opinion piece with the following comment “Other CoR parties’ (other than drivers and transport operators) maintenance responsibilities are only likely to be triggered where they observe a vehicle defect. In this case, their responsibilities are likely to involve not permitting the use of the unsafe or defective heavy vehicle … Read more

3rd Party Auditing – The Slippery Slope Into Liability

Engaging specialist 3rd party’s to assess and approve the safety arrangements of contractors is sadly quite common place these days (its a bit of a money spinner). Many of these companies offer services where they establish complex systems and criteria against which they asses contractor safety management. They collect contractor documentation, review it, go back … Read more

SKM Recycling – The Real Story

On 24 October 2014 a worker lost his hand in an aluminium baler at SKM. I was the OHS Manager. How could this happen? The supplier was an expert engineer, they installed and commissioned the machine and trained operators. It was used exactly as intended and had all guarding in place. No incidents or near … Read more

Fantastic! – COR Consultants and Lawyers – Lift Your Game!

The South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) has launched a broadside at an increasing incidence of overzealous clients in the supply chain, in what it deems an unintended consequence of last year’s chain of responsibility (COR) reforms. The growing COR compliance and consultancy space is leading to some clients becoming increasingly intrusive in the operations … Read more

Labour Hire Licensing Act

Unintended Consequences Contractor Arrangements. The LHLA intends to protect workers from being exploited by Labour Hire Providers and hosts. Under the Act an LHP provides labour to perform work in and as part of a business or undertaking of the host. Work specifically includes (but is not limited to) cleaning, meat work and horticulture. Owner … Read more