A Forum member has sent me this query which I'm posting on behalf:
"I am currently writing up the 3rd injury in less that 6 weeks for tennis elbow for workers in the cleaning team. The job involves manual scrubbing and two-thirds of their shift will involve scrubbing motions. Ageing workforce is a factor alongside developing arthritic conditions since commenced employment here. All three are fearful of losing employment and it is likely that the symptoms went unreported for some time. Any advice on preventing escalation of this type of injury?

A couple of thoughts. First, why is the high rate of musculoskeletal disorders not diminishing, given all we have learned over the last 20 years about redesigning work to minimise lifting and pushing (to take one example)?

Second, have we have kept our efforts to address MSD risks and psychosocial risks in silos, largely disconnected, because 'common sense' does not suggest any link between them?

Send in your questions for Joanne now - by simply responding to this thread.

All questions and other responses go into a moderation queue to be released by me in some kind of logical sequence. I can't guarantee all responses will see the light of day, depending on repetition etc.

I'll release the first question around 9.30am as a starter for ten.

Carl, many thanks for taking part in this Q&A session and for providing such thoughtful and thought-provoking responses! Now we'd better let you go so you can prepare for another day in ICU, which surely must be the most exciting/alarming work environment of all: you never know what is going to come through your door, and the stakes could not be higher. Thanks for your work - and be sure to pass on our appreciation to all of your team. Good work!

A last one from me: some people worry that introducing a Safety-II approach to their work will require them to abandon their old ways, ie "Safety-I".
Erik Hollnagel makes it clear that he sees Safety-II sitting alongside Safety-I.
What was your experience?

Now's the time to get those final questions in for Carl!

Carl, I'll sneak a question in here: when you decided to introduce Safety-II into the way your team worked, how did you go about it? Did you say "Hey, there's this thing I've discovered and here it is!"; or did you just start gently introducing different questions, ie: a soft launch?

Carl, thanks for setting the scene so well.

Now it's time for Forum members to start thinking about what they'd like to ask you. Fire in your questions now - by simply responding to this thread.

As always, all responses go into a moderation queue to be released by me in some kind of logical sequence. Can't guarantee all responses will see the light of day, depending on repetition etc.

I'll release the first question just after 9am tomorrow as a starter for ten.

WorkSafe has just put up their own template for businesses to use when re-opening for Level 3.

Attached FYI.

Let's wrap it up now. Grant - many thanks for having a crack at this and for your informative responses (and for revealing that it is possible for a lawyer to admit there is work above his or her pay grade, something I never thought possible).

And thanks too to all participants - a good batch of questions to keep Grant on his toes!

Nearing the end of our Q&A hour - get any final questions for Grant in now!

Grant, to what extent does the right to refuse unsafe work still hold? That is, if a worker in an essential industry felt unsafe because of a perceived risk of being exposed to someone with Covid-19, could they declare the work to be unsafe and refuse to do it?

OK, time to wrap up this discussion. Hillary - many thanks for making yourself available! And to forum members who chipped in contributions - all good stuff.

I'll contemplate doing another session in a week or two.

Whoa! That's like HR hearing of an accident and not telling H&S. Perhaps a way forward would be for HR to always inform H&S of a mental distress report so that HR can deal with the issue on a personal level and H&S can consider if there are any system of work factors involved that could be improved?

To take another tack, how have people found working with their HR colleagues in this area?
So often, it seems, people who report to HR that they have been bullied or sexually harassed end up victims of the HR system too.
HR too often seems to consider its duty to protect the organisation first rather than to protect its employees.
H&S - ideally - has a relentless focus on protecting people.
A clash of cultures?

Agree that work design is a valuable focus for improving mental wellbeing.
(So-called resilience training has always rung alarm bells with me - the physical safety analogy is that it's like training workers not to fall from height rather than redesigning work so it doesn't have to be done at height.)
However I'm also aware that for many people working in H&S, dealing with mental wellbeing is a scary prospect outside their experience. (This also applies to WorkSafe and its inspectors).
How to resolve this, so that mental health and wellbeing can be brought within the scope of H&S practice?

Here are some questions from Hillary to start you thinking ahead of Friday's session:

• Can mental wellbeing at work be measured?
• Is the threshold for the regulator to investigate mental health (ie a clinical diagnosis) too high?
• Are we treating harm to mental health differently to physical harm?
• Has the potential for psychological injury become a new focus of risk assessment?

(Note that in these live chat sessions, all posts to this thread go to the moderator for consideration and possible release to the Forum. I'll release some responses to these questions in the hour before we kick off at 10.00am tomorrow just as a warm-up. Not all responses may appear, depending on numbers, repetitiveness etc)

Craig - many thanks for making yourself available for this first live chat session. And for the quality of your answers. I hope your typing fingers aren't too sore. Please shout yourself a coffee break - you deserve it!

And thanks to everyone for chipping in questions. There were around 30 forum members online during this session, which is good to see.

I'll try to organise another one for next Friday - to be announced!

To warm things up before we get started, here is Craig's story about H&S strategy development from the Sept/Oct 2019 edition of Safeguard.

I imagine one of the best ways to use your H&S committee would be to have them remind people of the need to retain focus on their normal safe and healthy work methods, so they do not become distracted by any additional measures required to protect against the virus.

I would hope such a clause would be laughed out of court.