Thanks, that's a great lead - I'll give them a test run. M@

We were considering using an austringer / falconer to keep pigeons off our building.

Hi Rebecca,

I don't, however I'm very interested in what one might look like. I haven't thought about how I would flowchart fatigue. What do you envisage one would contain? If no one else has one I might give it shot to develop.
Thanks
Matt

Hi All,

We have a fleet of E-Scooters, along with E-Bikes that folk can use to get ot various meetings around the city. While I believe society is in a learngin phase with the scooters in particular I have we have determined that no additional policies or rules were necessitated for them. How we got to this point is longer than i can put in this post, however our Critical Risk Rules - Transportion incorporated their issues adequately. The only additional information we've put together is some 'equipment orientation' material.

I urge caution on this specifc item. "In a Flash" is a reasoanble dramatisation, that tells a tale of how a day out can turn bad, however it isn't "the true story". It doesn't accurately reflect all or the actually events of the day. The fact that it doesn't align with the courts account of the events, or the Coroners findings or any of the recommendations is telling.

Interestingly, I think this event, the investigation and subsequent prosecution support your points in the discussion thread on the Liabilty / Prosecution of Officers.

Hi Brook,

My immediate recommendation is the 'Management Standards Approach' - Rather than orientating to the individual factors associated with stress, that are highly variable and personal it focuses on 'whole of organization' and factors that can be influenced: Demands | Control | Support | Relationships | Role (clarity) | Change.

I've been able to use this in a wide range of ways with great outcomes - informing policy, ensuring reasonable expecations when developing position / job descriptions, through to identifying points of weakness that can be adjusted when problems appear.

A good place to find out more about this is https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/

I hope that helps and let me know how you get on.
M@

I like the thread of questioning. Consider this:

Two independant objects, each with a mass of 1 tonne travelling towards each other at 50km/h + (Force=Mass*Acceleration). The only thing preventing them from colliding is a social convention (the controller of the object will stay to the left).

If we consider safety to be the control of energy does this actually sound like a reliable safety approach? Would we accept this in any other aspect of work? And the single preventative control in place to avert a catastrophic failure is possibly the most prone to task overload?

While the mobile phone is a clear issue, any solution to this distraction requires compliance on the part of the oprator. It won't address the mirade of other forms of distraction (kids fighting in ther back of the car), task (over) loading and production line presures that the driver faces. And we still haven't adress the other dimensions of the equation - all the other road users.

So mobile phones aren't the hazard, risk or vector, rather a symptom. The only true or viable engineered control I am aware of on the hrozon is self driving vehicles.

Of course we could eliminate the risk and take up walking ;-)

Hi Michelle.

I'm undecided if HR and H+S are natural / comfortable co-functions or need to maintain a collaborative tension. It's a questoin of the philosphy and paradigm that the organisation puts in place when establishing the functions and the expecations and desicion making authoirity that each funciotn holds. Again, this is somehting I'm still mulling over and considering.

My experience has most certainly been that the two functions are in tension with each other, in part by my philosphy around H+S. The businesses I've been involved with the HR function hs been protectionist: holding infromation close, looking for 'whose at fault', holding the worker accountable for under performance - ignoring the working environment. This runs contrary to my H+S approach of openly sharig experinece and insight, examining the work environment in order to optimise work and understanding the underlying drivers for worker performance, enabling the capacity to 'fail safely'. It has been an uncomfortable tension, however one that consisently produces robustly test positive outcomes. The catch though: if one team / function was subservenant (reports through) to the other, the power imbalance results in poor, even bad outcomes.

My opinion, based on a large pool of data, is the NZ workpalces absolutley have to improve their H+S performance. They must change. And you don't generate chage by placing your change agents (H+S Practicioners) inside a well established business unit that has no driver for change.

As a part of suite of methods to assist the officers to keep cool as well as raise (even if only fractionally) morale I think the slushie machines could be a great tool. I'd be looking very closely at the sugar content and the negative helath effects that this would then present.

Turning it into a polictical football really got my hackles up. The public have yet again been sent the message that the health, safety and welbeing of front line workers and the acceptable work conditions of public servants is not worthy.

Hi Bruce,

The status of clubs and volunteer organisations has been an arena of much contention and debate. While the primary focus of HSWA is to protect workers and address matters in the Workplace, in todays society clubs can easily cross into this space, even though that isn't / may not be their intent. this makes it challenging to legislate and specific answers are incredibly conditional. I suspect you are very aware of this.

Based on what you've detialed I would say that the club in this scenerio is not a PCBU - they are 'contracting' the band, rather than employing them. It is likely that the venue and the band are and the duties will fall on them. The Club is in an influential position to facilitate these two to work out the detials though.

My answer is also on the basis that the club doesn't employ an administrator or event coordinator or similar. Engaging an accountant to review / audit the books is fine.

Hope that helps. Matt

Hi Graham. To the best of my knowledge there is no license requirement to operate a Manitou (telehandler). There are unit standards that establish a persons training / competence, however they are not a mandatory requirement, rather act as evidence to the workplace that the person has been trained to use one. Then it falls onto the PCBU(s) to meet thier H+S duties as Sheri has outlined.

Hi Andrew - Manitou is a brand of telehandler - it looks like a cross between a forklioft and a crane.