Are we paranoid about safety in Australia?

One of the great fallacies that is current is that this or that is a legally required. Some things are prescribed by law, but that is relatively little. Most OHS is not a legal requirement, but rather someone's attempt to put in place a safe system of work to meet the general requirement of the law that employers take reasonable care for the safety of their employees. It often seeks to prevent well beyond what would be needed for a safe system of work.

In this regard, speaking as a lawyer, a lot of what passes a OHS "requirement" is not something that the courts support. For example, a lot of people think that there have to be signs all over the place warning of the dangers of everything. In fact, our High Court has said quite consistently over the last 5 - 10 years that you don't need to warn against the obvious danger (eg a clear edge of a high cliff which is fenced off) or against the random - as one judge said, if you put a sign up along the road specifying every thing that could happen, the greatest risk would be running into a sign!

I admit that this is a bit of a revision of the position that some courts were taking in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s which seemed to work on the basis that the person with the deep pocket has to take 100% responsibility for all injury. However, too many people have taken too much of a read from some of the more extreme views expressed then and have not noticed that the courts now are saying that in assessing what is a risk that needs to be guarded against, a person is entitled to assume that others will use at least a reasonable degree of caution to look after themselves (at least if they are adults).

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Originally Posted by BobL

I'd be much happier about OHS rules if they were not so readily used for non OHS reasons by bureaucrats, bludgers and lay abouts to hide behind. There also seems an over emphasis on learning rules, and not enough on real, in-depth understanding about why things happen as they do and applying plain old common sense. OHS rules and their application seem to be designed to keep people ignorant, and alive (or maybe it's ignorant people, alive:D). Relying on OHS alone won't always save your behind, except perhaps in court, but then again your'e gonna be pretty uncomfortable arriving in court without a behind.

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I agree - I remember a couple of years ago sitting around a table at a monthly OHS committee meeting and hearing our HR manager say "We really need to make sure we're legally covered on this("we" meaning the company - though I was an employee rep on the committee). I responded with something like "actually I'm more concerned about making the workplace safer so my colleagues are less likely to be injured" or words to that effect. The employer reps on the committee all looked at me as if I'd just announced I was John the Baptist.

I guess there's some truth in the old (Russian?) saying that a committee is a donkey with four hind legs. I don't know what it means but it sounds right.

Agreed, some OHS rules seem necessary only to protect people from their own stupidity - in this case (as in others I'm sure) my concern was about work processes that virtually guaranteed injury.


Gaz.

Then again we could do as the Chinese do

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

Then again we could do as the Chinese do

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Wow - 17 people in one lift!

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Originally Posted by MrFixIt

Hi

I think you would agree that a guy walking on a SINGLE plank two/three storeys up would be acutely aware of his surroundings. Much more aware than our "locals" .........It could even be said that the Thai workers are more careful where they walk etc :)

I had to install some wiring for ground floor switches. The ONLY way to do this was from directly above the switches and from the second storey roof (sans scaffold/harness). As the switches where on the outer wall I would sit on the roof, above the eaves area with my leg hanging down past the gutter (for comfort and balance).

This is not something ill considered and I DO NOT recommend you follow/try my method. Au contraire, I was aware of what I was doing and paid attention to where I was. ....:)

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Most injuries are caused by complacency, not the unsafe practice. As a one off it may considered realtively safe to lean out over an edge, but the workers do this every day. It would be easy for them to over-reach or try to catch something they dropped and lose balance, becasue they are so used to being there they get over-comfortable. Even when we walk down the street we might stumble on a slight bump on the ground, that one moment 4 floors up would me a certain death.

I would agree that most OHS is a joke. At work everytime someone is injured something gets done to prevent a re-occurance. One person slips on a step so they put signs up all over the stairwells about watching your step, DAMN I was too busy reading the warning signs, I slipped on a step.

Test and tag of electricals is a joke. Workcover came and and issued an improvement notice because our brand new toaster and sandwich maker weren't tagged! I watched the annual tagging one day and the two of them walked around, one recorded the details of the tag, whilst the other put the new tags on. I didn;t see any form of test or inspection. He just reached behind the shredder, pulled out the power cord far enough to remove the old label and replace with a new one. (reminds me I might check at the office I work l out of at the moment. The top of the shredder falls off all the time, exposing the cutters and electrics. I can bet that it has been tagged as electrically safe.)