OHS Professional Magazine September 2022

PROFESSIONAL A U S T R A L I A N I N S T I T U T E O F H E A LT H & S A F E T Y P U B L I C AT I O N

SEPTEMBER 2022

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How is digitalisation impacting work design?

How megatrends are shaping the world of WHS

Jacqueline Agius: at the helm of WHS in the ACT

Good work design: an OHS Body of Knowledge overview

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How digitalisation is impacting work design: Digital technologies are on the rise and OHS professionals have an important role to play in guiding conversations about work design and the role of human workers

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OHS Professional Published by the Australian Institute of Health & Safety (AIHS) Ltd. ACN 151 339 329

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect AIHS opinion or policy.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher. Advertising material and inserts should not be seen as AIHS endorsement of products or services

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How megatrends are shaping the world of health and safety:

Megatrends are shaping the world of work and OHS and the AIHS is adapting its policy agenda accordingly

The AIHS publishes OHS Professional magazine, which is published quarterly and distributed to members of the AIHS. The AIHS is Australia’s professional body for health & safety professionals.

With more than 70 years’ experience and a membership base of 4000, the AIHS aims to develop, maintain, and promote a body of knowledge that defines professional practice in OHS.

Phone: (03) 8336 1995 Postal address PO Box 2078 Gladstone Park VIC 3043 Street address Unit 2/217-219 Mickleham Rd Tullamarine VIC 3043 Membership enquiries email: membership@aihs.org.au Editorial Craig Donaldson email: ohsmagazine@aihs.org.au Design/Production Anthony Vandenberg email: ant@featherbricktruck.com.au Proofreader Heather Wilde Printing/Distribution SpotPress

Features

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Principles of good work design: an OHS Body of Knowledge overview: Work design is a fundamental component of good health and safety in the workplace

12 Ventilation and air purification in the age of COVID-19: Ventilation and air purification play a vital role in infectious disease control – a fact made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic

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Jacqueline Agius: at the helm of WHS in the ACT: There are a number of ongoing health and safety challenges that need to be addressed in the ACT

How are WA businesses responding to new WHS laws? The recent

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From the editor

commencement of new WHS laws in Western Australia presents a number of challenges for health and safety leaders

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Chair’s Note

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News

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Events

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Book review

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@AustralianInstituteofHealthandSafety

Australian Institute of Health and Safety

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EDITORIAL NOTE

Inside the rapidly changing world of work design Work design is an increasingly important issue for organisations and OHS leaders as digital technologies reshape how work is done, writes Craig Donaldson dirty, and dangerous work”, she said they also have the potential to eradicate employment opportunities for some workers and lead to the creation of work that is more intense, lacking in control, and extensively monitored.

For more information, turn to the cover story which begins on page 18.

Craig Donaldson, editor, OHS Professional

D

igital technologies are transforming entire industries – and the organisations that operate within them. There are many benefits associated with the adoption of digital technologies, such as cost reductions, improved efficiencies, and the ability to make more informed business decisions through access to new and better data.

However, there are also downsides associated with digital transformation. These are not discussed half as much as the upsides, according to Professor Sharon Parker, ARC Laureate Fellow and Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University. “A huge amount of investment is currently going into the technical design of new digital technologies; much, much more than the investment that goes into thinking about some of the challenges and the risks for workers,” says Parker, who recently spoke on “Proactive adaptivity: Designing digital work for health, well-being and performance” at the 2022 Dr Eric Wigglesworth AM Memorial Lecture.

While digital technologies bring opportunities for work and society through augmenting human performance and taking on “dull,

“A huge amount of investment is currently going into the technical design of new digital technologies; much, much more than the investment that goes into thinking about some of the challenges and the risks for workers” Work design is also the focus for the OHS Body of Knowledge feature for this edition.

In recognition of the rising importance of work design, the OHS Body of Knowledge will include a new major chapter on the field of study and practice. This new chapter examines the relationship between work design and occupational health, safety, and wellbeing. There are a number of steps organisations can take to improve work design, according to chapter co-author Laura Fruhen, lecturer, Psychology at Work Laboratory, School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia. “The OHS Body of Knowledge chapter will give

organisational stakeholders a great overview of theory and knowledge in this area that has been generated over decades. Research actually shows that those who have a richer knowledge of work design create betterdesigned jobs,” she said. For more information turn to page 24.

Also in this issue, Andrew Heinrichs, Chair of the Policy Committee for the AIHS, explores the recently released CSIRO “Our Future World” report which identifies seven megatrends that will shape Australia’s future.

These megatrends provide a useful framework to think about our changing world and will impact the world of work and, subsequently, OHS. “The AIHS, as the OHS profession’s fierce advocate, must use all our policy capabilities to represent the profession and positively influence OHS outcomes in Australian workplaces,” says Heinrichs, who explains the AIHS is a place where issues can be raised and debated and offers members opportunities to provide frank and fearless expert submissions to policymakers. For more information turn to page 8.

Lastly, new WHS laws were enacted in Western Australia earlier this year. These laws effectively supersede previous WHS laws, which have been in effect for more than 30 years, and now harmonise WA with other states and territories (except Victoria). In this article, Greg Smith, a partner with law firm Jackson McDonald, noted there does not seem to be a good level of preparedness for the legislation. “Indeed, I regularly talk to even quite large businesses who don’t recognise that the legislation has commenced. It is hard to say how widespread the lack of response to WHS legislation has been, but certainly, I would deal with organisations on a daily basis, where five months after the commencement of the legislation, no adjustments have been made to safety policies, procedures, or processes to account for different requirements,” he said. For the full story, turn to page 14. n

The OHS Professional editorial board 2022

CHANELLE MCENALLAY National safety, property & environment manager, Ramsay Health Care

DAVID BORYS Independent OHS educator & researcher

KAREN WOLFE General manager of high reliability, ANSTO

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KYM BANCROFT Deputy DirectorGeneral, Office of Industrial Relations, Queensland

LIAM O'CONNOR HSET group manager, SRG Global

LOUISE HOWARD Executive director of safety, Transport for NSW

MICHAEL TOOMA Managing partner, Clyde & Co Australia

PATRICK HUDSON Professor, Delft University of Technology

STEVE BELL Managing Partner – Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety (Australia, Asia)

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CHAIR'S NOTE

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ESG, good work design & AIHS strategy If we are focusing on ESG in the workplace and setting ESG performance indicators, we should see a drive for greater employee satisfaction, psychological safety, and employee well-being, writes Naomi Kemp

T Naomi Kemp, Chair of the Australian Institute of Health & Safety

“Good work design is defined by regulators as being concerned with specifying and organising existing and new jobs and tasks of a workgroup or individuals to be less hazardous and minimise harm from physical and psychosocial hazards and risks” aih s. org . a u

he concepts of ESG are mostly spoken about at the boardroom, shareholder, and global levels.

And it is big business. The United Nations estimates that the annual global spending by governments and the private sector to deliver the world’s ESG-related goals is around $5 trillion yearly or more than 6 per cent of world GDP. The connection between purpose, ESG, employee engagement, and business results sounds too good to be true. But research shows that by focusing on ESG in the workplace, organisations can do their part for the planet while also delivering improvements to employee health, safety, engagement, productivity, and driving business success.

ESG opportunity: while some may be disappointed that health, safety, and well-being have merely shifted from under the ‘sustainability’ banner to ‘social’, I feel this change offers an opportunity.

The opportunity for us to have deeper conversations with executives about how the company’s actions affect people. Those conversations can elevate our influence within the organisation to better promote health, safety, and well-being.

This brings me to work design, the main theme of this OHS Professional issue. As OHS professionals and ‘influencers’ (I use that millennial term with trepidation), the focus on the ‘S for Social’ in the workplace should aim to deliver improvements to employee health, safety, well-being, engagement, and satisfaction. We are talking about work design in all its glory.

Good work design is defined by regulators as being concerned with specifying and organising existing and new jobs and tasks of a workgroup or individuals to be less hazardous and minimise harm from physical and psychosocial hazards and risks. The NSW Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards (2021) advises that during the risk management process, we should always consider the underlying sources of psychosocial hazards and risks, both external and internal, including the design and management of your organisation as a whole – structure and governance, and procurement and resourcing decisions.

Sound a bit like ESG? Sticking with the psychosocial aspect,

we know that when managing these hazards, we must consider risk factors such as role clarity, work demands, control and support. These are all elements which can also impact employee engagement and satisfaction. This means that if we are focusing on ESG in the workplace and setting ESG performance indicators, we should see a drive for greater employee satisfaction, psychological safety and wellbeing. All of which can be achieved through good work design.

So, what do we want, and when do we want it? Good work design, and now, please.

Practising what we preach: Is the AIHS Board at the point of setting ESG performance measures? Almost! Our 2023-26 Strategy includes operational priorities, and with the new CEO, we will set performance measures. That said, we’ve already started to look and understand; Environment – how our actions and choices to use energy and other resources have an impact, and in what ways they create waste, and Governance – how our decisions are made and whether they are honest, ethical, and fair.

For Social in our workplace, as not-forprofit non-executive Directors, we know we must ensure we exercise due diligence at a minimum. Further to that, we know we need to ensure we are setting the tone for the ‘S for Social’ performance. As such, the operational priorities for 2023-26 will include: • Extraordinary people: Building structures and pathways that harness the full potential of our staff.

• Thriving membership: Building inclusive and diverse pathways that grow and engage our membership base.

• Engaging communications: Personalised and valuable communications that deliver positive outcomes.

At the governance level, setting these operational priorities and working with the new CEO to set performance measures and implement them within operations is the first step. By setting the tone, we will ensure our own workplace has a good work design. The next step is to monitor and verify that we are achieving a safe, healthy, and productive workplace for our people. n This article was written before the new AIHS CEO was announced.

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AIHS NEWS

Gig economy workers fear for their safety Many workers in the gig economy are looking for alternative and more secure employment arrangements due to fears for their safety and wellbeing, low pay, and feelings of isolation, according to University of Melbourne research.

The study included in-depth interviews with 90 people and found complex, unaddressed issues, including deep dissatisfaction with the existing gig economy model from both workers and consumers.

“Many workers and consumers are growing tired of the gig economy and are not passively accepting how things are. Our interviewees showcase a range of complex emotions, but many have become profoundly disaffected,” said the University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor David Bissell, who is the project lead on the five-year study ‘Gig Cities’. Research team member Dr Elizabeth Straughan said the team interviewed both workers and employers to explore the positive and negative aspects of gig work platforms.

“Though some workers appreciate the flexibility to earn some top-up income, many are looking for ways out owing to dissatisfaction with low pay, fears for their personal safety and wellbeing, feelings of isolation, and a lack of viable career pathways. On the other hand, although consumers have at times enjoyed the convenience of these on-demand platforms, our findings show that consumers actively grapple with the tricky and inequitable politics of the gig economy when making decisions about using these services,” Dr Straughan said.

The report recommends that governments regulate platform companies more tightly to ensure pay and conditions for workers are improved by recognising them as employees. The research comes off the back of recent moves by multiple state governments to improve safety for gig economy workers – particularly those who use food delivery platforms.

WHO declares firefighting a cancer-causing profession The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently declared firefighting a cancercausing profession. The WHO IARC announced it was escalating the profession of firefighting from ‘Group 2B – Possibly carcinogenic to humans’ to ‘Group 1 – Carcinogenic to humans’ as part of its monograph on the identification of carcinogenic hazards to humans, which is an ongoing detailed study of a single specialised subject.

The IARC Monograph identifies environmental factors that are carcinogenic hazards to humans. These include chemicals, complex mixtures, occupational exposures, physical agents, biological agents, diesel particulate, shift work, and lifestyle factors. Some 25 scientists from eight countries met at IARC in France to finalise their evaluation of the carcinogenicity of occupational exposure as a firefighter, with a summary published in The Lancet.

The move has major implications for the manner in which cancer is managed for firefighters and fire services across the world, including in Australia, according to United Firefighters Union of Australia national secretary Greg McConville. He said IARC has now confirmed, beyond any doubt, that the profession of firefighting causes cancer in firefighters, and this has important implications for Australia’s governments and fire services.

“The WHO IARC has now absolutely confirmed what firefighters and their representatives have been advocating for years – firefighting causes cancer. The WHO’s decision to now classify the profession of firefighting as being ‘carcinogenic to humans’ represents an undeniable call upon all Australian governments to introduce new measures critical in protecting firefighter health,” he said.

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10,000 workers set to develop lung cancer from silica dust As many as 10,000 Australians are predicted to develop lung cancer in their lifetime from being exposed to silica dust, according to research from Curtin University. Engineered stone – used mainly for kitchen benchtops – is a particularly potent source of silica dust, which is also found naturally in many building and construction products, including sand, soil, stone, concrete, and mortar, as well as being used in the manufacture of building products such as bricks, tiles, and glass.

For the past 60 years, silicosis has been very rare in Australia.

However, the increased use of engineered stone in kitchen benchtops is driving a re-emergence of the disease, prompting the Australian Government to set up the National Dust Diseases Taskforce. Safe Work Australia recently released a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement that proposes options for managing the risks of exposure.

As the result of a study commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Curtin University researchers used a unique method to predict how many Australians would develop lung cancer in their lifetime due to their exposure to silica dust in a specific year.

Lead researcher, Dr Renee Carey from the Curtin School of Population Health, said the modelling provided the best available estimate of the future number of lung cancer and silicosis cases that would result from workplace exposure to silica.

“Our modelling predicts more than 10,000 Australians will develop lung cancer, and up to 103,000 workers will be diagnosed with silicosis due to their current exposure to silica dust at work.

We estimated that more than half a million Australian workers are currently exposed to silica dust across various industries, including construction, mining and quarrying, and manufacturing jobs,” Carey said.

Aged care operator charged after deadly COVID-19 outbreak WorkSafe Victoria has charged St Basil’s Homes for The Aged in Victoria with nine breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act following a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at its Fawkner residential aged care facility in 2020.

WorkSafe alleges that in July 2020, after being notified by a worker that they had tested positive for COVID-19, St Basil’s failed to: require workers to wear personal protective equipment (PPE); train workers how to safely don and doff PPE; verify that staff were competent in using PPE; tell staff when PPE should be used; and supervise the use of PPE. Ninety-four residents and 94 staff members tested positive for COVID-19, with 45 residents subsequently dying from COVID-19-related complications. St Basil’s has been charged with a single breach of sections 21(1) and 21(2)(a) of the OHS Act in that it failed to provide and maintain for its employees, as far as reasonably practicable, a working environment that was safe and without risks to health.

WorkSafe has also charged the aged care provider with two breaches of sections 21(1) and 21(2)(e) of the OHS Act in that it failed to enable workers to perform their work safely and without risks to health by failing to provide necessary information and instruction, and supervision.

The aged care provider has been further charged with three breaches of section 23(1) of the OHS Act in that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons other than its employees were not exposed to risks to their health or safety arising from the conduct of its undertaking. The complex investigation took 23 months to complete and involved reviewing thousands of pages of documents and multiple witness interviews.

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AIHS NEWS

High Court mental injury ruling reaffirms employer duty of care

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Sexual harassment should be a WHS issue: WA parliamentary report

A recent High Court of Australia ruling has reaffirmed an employer’s duty of care to its workers to take reasonable care to avoid mental injuries in the workplace. The case, Kozarov v State of Victoria [2022] HCA 12, detailed how Zagi Kozarov worked for the Specialist Sex Offences Unit of the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions, and in this role, Kozarov routinely interacted with victims of trauma and was exposed to evidence of trauma.

She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary major depressive disorder from the vicarious trauma she suffered during her employment. Subsequently, Kozarov sued her employer, alleging they failed to prevent her from developing a workplace injury.

On 19 February 2020, the Supreme Court of Victoria found in favour of Kozarov in her claim against her employer. However, on 24 November 2020, the employer successfully appealed the original judgment. On 13 April 2022, the High Court of Australia ruled in favour of Kozarov, which ultimately meant that the decision of the Court of Appeal was set aside, and the original order of the Supreme Court of Victoria was reinstated in her favour.

“While this decision does not fundamentally change the nature of an employer’s duty to its employees, it does help us to understand what duty employers have to workers around preventing both mental and physical injuries when their workers take part in inherently risky work,” said WorkCover Queensland in a statement.

“Employers must provide a safe system of work and take steps to reduce or avoid foreseeable risks of both physical and mental harm. The extent of the duty of care that employers have to workers, and the steps they should take to mitigate risks, differs based on the type of workplace and role.”

Sexual harassment should primarily be considered a WHS issue and not simply an HR matter, according to a landmark WA Parliamentary report into sexual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry.

The report, Enough is Enough: sexual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry found that companies have historically dealt with sexual harassment as a human resources issue and that neither the mining regulator nor mining companies have paid due attention to what sexual harassment in the workplace primarily is: “a serious health and safety issue”.

“Appropriately trained and resourced human relations staff are of course essential and will form one part of a broader response to incidents of sexual harassment,” the report said. “And while it might occur on a spectrum of risk, all harassment has the potential to cause serious injury and must be treated accordingly. Industry and regulatory practices accustomed to dealing with physical danger and injury must now adapt to accommodate the characteristics of psychosocial harm.”

Libby Mettam, WA Shadow Health Minister and Chair of Community Development and Justice Standing Committee, said in the report that sexual harassment is generally accepted or overlooked, while abuse of positions of power, serious breaches of codes of conduct, and a culture of cover-ups contribute to sexual harassment in the FIFO mining industry workplace.

In 2020 the Productivity Commission estimated that FIFO workers represented 63 per cent of the WA mining workforce, which is significantly higher than in other states. Women account for 18.9 per cent of the mining sector’s workforce – the highest level in history. However, the report found that women accounted for 74 per cent of mining workers who reported sexual harassment at work.

Corporate Members

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BEING PART OF THE NETWORK – BRONZE MEMBERS Pilz Australia Port of Newcastle Operations Pty Ltd Sustainable Future Solutions The Safe Step Trainwest Safety Institute Tru-Bilt Industries Ltd UnitingSA University of Queensland

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Strategic Partner Organisations Ai Group ASHPA Australian College of Road Safety (ACRS) Australian Institute of Management (AIM) Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisations (CSIRO) Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ)

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Farmsafe Australia Inc Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA) International Network of Safety & Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO) National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP) New Zealand Institute of Safety Management (NZISM)

Primary Industries Health and Safety Partnership (PIHSP) Professions Australia SafeWork NSW SafeWork SA SANE Australia Standards Australia WorkSafe Victoria Workplace Health and Safety Queensland

Would you like to become a Corporate Member of the AIHS? Please contact AIHS on 03 8336 1995 to discuss the many options available.

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POLICY

How megatrends are shaping the world of health and safety Megatrends are shaping the world of work and OHS and the AIHS is adapting its policy agenda accordingly, writes Andrew Heinrichs

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s the world of work changes, so too will OHS policy drivers, needs, and opportunities. The recently released CSIRO “Our Future World” report identifies seven megatrends that will shape Australia’s future. These megatrends provide a useful framework to think about our changing world and will impact the world of work and, subsequently OHS. These include: • Adapting to climate change – natural disasters will increasingly impact Australians both at work and home, indoors and out.

• The escalating health imperative – ageing populations, increasing chronic diseases, growing psychological distress; all will impact the ability of workforces to perform productive work.

• Diving into digital – the remote working boom brings both opportunities and challenges to the health and safety of workers.

Another trend is the rise of insecure work, increasingly facilitated by digital platforms. What do these new industrial arrangements mean to the health and safety of workers, the duties owed by employers, and the role of OHS professionals?

“As OHS professionals, we should be concerned about this erosion of trust, as it includes decreasing confidence in the credibility of experts and professions like ours” Underlying all these megatrends is the theme of trust. The erosion of institutional trust threatens to limit the capacity for meaningful collective action. We have learnt firsthand that

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trust lubricates contracts, drives trade, and is the foundation block of effective public health responses. Without trust, society’s ability to respond to these macro challenges will be hindered.

As OHS professionals, we should be concerned about this erosion of trust, as it includes decreasing confidence in the credibility of experts and professions like ours. And, as conscientious citizens, we should all pay attention to these megatrends because the 2012 report showed that CSIRO is using robust data sources to make these forecasts, meaning they will likely be highly accurate.

Closer to our work, many important issues will impact our profession in the future. These issues can be clustered as hazards, capability issues, and practice issues. They include: Hazards: • Silicosis and fibrous diseases – The AIHS have advocated on this issue recently, as we learn more about the impacts of dust hazards on human health.

• Health in pandemic(s) – The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and there will likely be more pandemics in our globally connected world as humanity spreads its growth throughout the biosphere.

• Musculoskeletal diseases – This historically significant area of harm will continue to be challenging in an ageing workforce.

• Psychological health and safety – Including complex psychosocial hazards and demands from poorly designed work. Our shift to a more services-based economy will see the impacts of these risks continue to grow.

Capability issues: • Health and safety representatives (HSRs) – Currently, the Institute does little to engage with HSRs, despite many OHS people beginning their OHS journey as HSRs. • Small business – Small business workers experience proportionally greater rates

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POLICY

of harm compared to workers for larger organisations. Yet navigating regulatory requirements remains a challenge for employers who are less likely to employ in-house OHS support.

• Vocational OHS training course quality – There is widespread concern and discontent about the quality of OHS training courses. The AIHS established the Australian OHS Education Accreditation Board to oversee tertiary OHS courses, but what is our role in vocational training?

• Stocking the OHS professional pipeline – We are in a once-in-a-generation recruitment boom as demand for OHS professionals outcompetes supply.

How do we support and shape the next generation of OHS professionals?

Practice issues: • Organisational measuring and reporting on OHS performance and outcomes – We know that the usefulness of lost time injuries (LTIs) expired long ago, so where to next?

• Highlighting the health in OHS – Due to our engineering, manufacturing, and mining roots, OHS is overwhelmingly a scientific endeavour in Australia, one that has traditionally been focused on safety above health. Our OHS “ecosystem” is designed for discrete, finite events, i.e., “safety accidents.”

Diseases, particularly psychological illnesses, with their long-lead times, inherent variability, and more subjective nature, often do not fit neatly into these existing OHS management and regulatory systems.

• Safety in procurement – Large employers, particularly governments, consider suppliers’ OHS capabilities in their procurement processes. Can these approaches be improved and harmonised?

OHS professionals also need to move from a place where hazards, risks and controls were considered in isolation to one where we recognise the messy reality that physical and psychosocial hazards, risks, and controls are inextricably interlinked. A ‘systems approach’ is required to identify and control these risks.

Beyond these known issues, where do we want the profession to head in the longer term? Do we advocate on issues like: • Legislating for suitably qualified members/regulating the profession – The recently enacted WA OHS laws are the first to include duties for those providing OHS services, including training and advice. Is this the first step toward regulating the OHS profession?

OHS PROFESSIONA L | SEPTEMBER 2022

• Changing where and how OHS is regulated – Regulators often have dual, perhaps conflicting, responsibilities to both support and regulate industry.

Should the same entity perform both roles? Should states and territories perform this role?

Policy is inherent to all these issues.

And the AIHS, as the OHS profession’s fierce advocate, must use all our policy capabilities to represent the profession and positively influence OHS outcomes in Australian workplaces. But we cannot tackle all these issues at once.

OHS policy and the AIHS

OHS policy is a broad topic. This is because 1) the OHS ‘ecosystem’ (e.g. practices, laws etc.) is triggered whenever work occurs, and work makes up a large part of our society, 2) OHS applies across all Australian jurisdictions, and 3) OHS policy can include many topics and concepts that are relevant to other policy issues, such as risk, audits, culture, leadership, public health, and public safety etc. OHS policy includes the laws, requirements, and programs set by Governments and other authorities that affect OHS. It might be dry to some, but it impacts all Australian workers and significantly influences the work of Australian OHS professionals and practitioners.

The AIHS Policy Committee in the Institute’s College of Fellows represents the Institute on OHS policy matters because it helps us achieve four things: 1. Build the reputation and credibility of the OHS profession 2. Raise awareness about OHS among broader stakeholders 3. Support the Institute’s broader strategic objectives, and 4. Influence OHS policy to achieve positive OHS outcomes.

We believe good OHS policy 1) is proportionate to the potential or actual harm sustained by workers and/or other people, 2) is evidence- and risk-based, and where possible, driven by objective data, and 3) enables better, safer, and healthier work, from the individuals doing their dayto-day activities, to employers striving to achieve their business objectives.

The Committee’s work

The work of the Committee generally falls into two categories. Firstly, our reactive work is the submissions made to public consultations and inquiries on OHS matters. Since July 2020, the Committee have coordinated and developed more than 20 submissions to governments and other bodies on a wide variety of topics, including new regulations and industry workforce

strategies. You can see those submissions at www.aihs.org.au/aihs-policy.

As volunteers, we use webpage scanning software and subscriptions to automatically alert us of potential opportunities, buying us precious extra days to meet tight submission deadlines.

“We know that the usefulness of lost time injuries (LTIs) expired long ago, so where to next?”

Once we are aware of an opportunity, the next challenge is “finding the expert.”

As OHS generalists, it is impossible to have deep expertise and knowledge across every OHS policy issue. So, we often rely on input from members and the broader OHS community as experts in their field.

We then write a submission that captures their views whilst ensuring

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period of stability and consolidation through the pandemic, it is time to refresh and lift our ambitions in our proactive policy work.

But where do we focus?

Where to from here?

1) those views are evidence-based and reasonable and 2) that the submission aligns with the Institute’s “overarching” policy objectives and positions. These include things like advancing the reputation and value proposition of the OHS profession, encouraging engagement with and investment in the OHS profession, and advocating for the use of the OHS Body of Knowledge.

When deciding to respond to these reactive opportunities, we weigh up whether 1) the engagement is directly relevant to the OHS profession, policy and/or practice, 2) the advocacy is supported with evidence, data, lived experiences, literature and/or other trusted sources, 3) we can meet the submission timeframes, which is typically only four weeks, 4) we can “find the expert”, assess their relationship with the Institute, and their ability to contribute, and 5) whether there are opportunities to make joint submissions with kindred societies and other reputable bodies who share our policy objectives.

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The other category of the Committee’s work is our proactive policy work, where we seek to set the agenda. Examples of this are: • Our advocacy to make Australian Standards more accessible to Australian workplaces, and • Our review, released in late December 2021, on Australia’s ten-year OHS strategy, developed by Safe Work Australia.

This year the College of Fellows is also establishing a Research Committee. This group will work closely with the Policy Committee by developing supporting position papers and facilitating the research of emerging OHS policy areas such as climate change, psychological health and safety, and digital technologies.

Later this year, I am handing over the Policy Committee Chair role to the esteemed Dr Peta Miller. The AIHS has a new CEO about to commence, and in September 2022, three new members will join the AIHS Board. This is a time of transition. After a

Being a largely volunteer undertaking, our limited resources mean we need to prioritise our efforts. We are currently reviewing our policy agenda based on: 1. Board-defined AIHS Strategic Outcomes 2. National WHS Strategic Outcomes, particularly those outlined in the National WHS Strategy developed by the national OHS policy body, Safe Work Australia 3. WHS statistics and outcomes (e.g., injuries, illness, and fatalities), and 4. Member and other surveys.

The Policy Committee is seeking new members. We are looking for OHS professionals with policy skills like writing, desktop research, and coordinating submission projects. We are also interested in hearing from members with deep expertise in regulatory and other OHS policy matters. If you want to give back to the profession and help us prepare to deal with these macro challenges, send a brief email telling us about yourself, why you would like to join the Policy Committee or be a listed expert, and your policy skills and/or OHS expertise to policy@aihs.org.au.

We are excited about the opportunities to influence OHS policy across Australia positively. There is much work to do, and we believe the Institute is the best placed and often only vehicle through which these changes can be made. Our profession has so much to offer, and the Institute is a key enabler. Individual OHS professionals and organisations are limited in their ability to affect broad policy changes. The Institute is where issues can be raised and debated and offers Members opportunities to provide frank and fearless expert submissions to policymakers. So, if you are working in the OHS profession and want to make a difference, join the Institute, and start contributing today. Because as we learned when reflecting on the 2012 CSIRO megatrends report, these macro challenges will arrive quicker than we expect. n Andrew Heinrichs is an AIHS Fellow, a Certified OHS Professional and Chair of the Policy Committee for the AIHS. He is an OHS professional with more than 12 years’ experience in the public and private sectors. He currently leads the OHS function within the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety infrastructure delivery arm, the Community Safety Building Authority.

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RESEARCH

Ventilation and air purification in the age of COVID-19: What you need to know Ventilation and air purification play a vital role in infectious disease control – a fact made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Dino Pisaniello

“I

got COVID, but I don’t know where I got it.” If this applies to you, you’re not alone.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus naturally mutates to increase transmissibility and evade immunity.

At this stage of the pandemic, we are talking about viral variants that are highly transmissible even in vaccinated populations. The transmissibility of the omicron BA5 subvariant has been compared with that of the measles virus, where you don’t even have to be in the same room as an infected person to become infected. It is sufficient to be in a room recently vacated by an infected person.

So, the South Australian Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, who is usually masked up, speculated that she might have acquired COVID when visiting an art gallery in Canberra.

While one could argue that we are losing the battle, this pandemic has led to a much better appreciation of the assorted options for infectious disease control and, to some extent,

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their effectiveness. Health and safety professionals are taking a “layered” approach to the problem since each layer has its limitations. A “swiss cheese” model (see below) was adopted early on and integrated with the hazard control hierarchy (as per Section 36 of the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations).

The generalist OHS professional is key to the design, evaluation, and review of the administrative controls.

For a while, the focus was on washing hands and disinfecting surfaces, and airborne transmission beyond 1.5 metres was considered unlikely. However, thanks to the efforts of Professor Lidia Morawska and hundreds of other scientists (Morawska and Milton 2020; https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa939), it was accepted that SARS-CoV-2, like many – or indeed all – respiratory viruses, could be transmitted through the air, and at a considerable distance. As a result, attention turned towards improved ventilation and air purification without knowing what the risk reduction would be in practice.

The “first cab off the rank” in Australia was the Victorian government which scrambled to acquire tens of thousands of portable air purifiers to install in school classrooms along with thousands of carbon dioxide sensors. Concurrently, developers, building owners, and managers were wondering what they needed to do moving forward. The now common “working from home” workforce viewed existing air conditioning arrangements suspiciously.

Their suspicion is likely to have been fuelled by the fact that they had never been in a plant room and had no real understanding of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems (see main image).

Ventilation is important but not always well understood

Ventilation of an indoor occupied space is not just about moving air around. It entails taking in air from another space (hopefully clean fresh air) and exchanging it. Hence, the rate of ventilation can be expressed as air changes per hour.

As humans exhale carbon dioxide, a build-up of CO2 above about 1,000 ppm in an occupied space means the air exchange needs to be increased. The CO2 metric has been considered a proxy for infectious disease risk since we also exhale viruses if infected. However, the rate of virus exhalation rises dramatically, from quiet breathing to speaking to singing or shouting. So, to avoid an increase in risk, a space used for singing requires a greater

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Air purification: does it work in practice?

degree of ventilation than a space used for sleeping or simple reading. A crowded restaurant with people singing or shouting at each other is a real problem, as patrons and staff effectively breathe each other’s exhaled air. It’s actually worse as the air is potentially moving from the source (infected person) directly towards the receiver (susceptible person) in a ballistic exposure scenario.

Dilution of background airborne virus particles via increased air exchange can potentially reduce risk by a factor of 3 to 4 with good mechanical ventilation (i.e., as good, or better than the Australian Standard 1668.2 rate of ten litres per second of outside air per person). This is also more reliable than natural ventilation (Ricolfi et al., 2022: https://doi. org/10.48550/arXiv.2207.02678).

Further reduction of transmission risk can be achieved by interrupting the source to receiver pathway, i.e., by clever directional airflow. Indeed, future building ventilation designs will move from diffuse ceiling ventilation (a common current office arrangement) to floor (or underfloor) level air supply – or even personal ventilation systems (Ferrari et al., 2022: https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2022.109366). Such building design innovation will be supported through an Australian Research Council Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (https://research.qut.edu. au/ilaqh/projects/arc-ittc/).

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Recently, there has been an increasing baseline of concern about infiltration of bushfire smoke, CBD vehicle traffic pollution, and aeroallergens (e.g., fungal spores from flooded buildings). This raises questions about the effectiveness of filters used in HVAC systems. Now there is additional concern about airborne viruses indoors. High-efficiency particle filtration and air disinfection can address the microbiological risks. Unfortunately, the filters used in conventional HVAC systems in office buildings were not designed to efficiently remove sub-micrometre virus particles, bushfire smoke, or ultrafine vehicle exhaust particles.

Likewise, they were not designed to remove odours or deactivate microbes.

In theory, high-efficiency particulate arrestance filters (HEPA) can be installed, but they have significant back pressure and cost/energy consumption implications.

Even with supplementary germicidal UV or plasma units, they will only reduce infectious disease risk by about 70- 80 per cent because the source (and closerange transmission) is not eliminated. Of course, masks make a big difference, with an estimated 95 per cent risk reduction if everyone is wearing a tight-fitting P2/ N95 mask. Even masks are not the panacea as the virus can, to a minor extent, be transmitted via the eyes (Coroneo and Collignon, 2021: https://doi.org/10.1016/ S2666-5247(21)00040-9).

There is a wide range of portable air purifiers on the market, and most have some sort of particle sensor incorporated into the unit. That said, the selection and location of these units require careful consideration. One of the major considerations is the noise level. There is often no or limited information from the suppliers of the clean air delivery rates (CADR) for the quieter low-speed settings. Multiple units are often required to significantly reduce background particle levels within a reasonable time (10-15 minutes) and under relatively quiet conditions. Remember that the decibel scale is logarithmic, and two 45 dB units (a total of 48 dB) are quieter than a single 55 dB unit. Some have poor outlet designs, which don’t really interrupt the source-receiver air path and just clean a particular part of the room. Advice can be sought from an occupational hygienist, who can also assess air flows and air exchange.

On the upside, air purification and air disinfection units increase the effective air exchange because the air now

supplied adds to the clean air delivered to occupants.

As with all engineering controls, systems require regular inspection and preventive maintenance (not breakdown maintenance). Poor maintenance can drastically reduce a nominal 99.9 per cent filter performance. Charcoal filters are meant to trap odours and volatile organic compounds but can rapidly lose effectiveness with time. It is understood that charcoal filters were removed (or not replaced) from the free-standing air purifier units in Victorian schools because they were not particularly effective and reduced airflow through the HEPA filters!

Overall, we are moving in the right direction, with evidence-based criteria for healthy buildings being developed and indoor air quality certified by various organisations (e.g., Green Building Council Australia).

There is good evidence that clean air improves worker health and wellbeing, productivity, vigilance, and better decision making. The silver lining of this pandemic is that indoor air quality is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Common myths

Outside air is cleaner than indoor air.

This depends on your location (e.g., CBD, industrial area etc.). Provided that air contamination is not generated indoors, the building enclosure itself and the HVAC system do provide some protection from ozone, particles etc.

The area of the room is important for infectious disease risk. It is actually the volume of the room, so very high ceilings are associated with lower background levels at occupant breathing heights.

Air is well mixed in an occupied space. Regular A/C air supply vents do not mix the air efficiently, and depending on the complexity of the room, there may be several dead spots with higher airborne virus levels. Ceiling fans do a much better job.

Carbon dioxide is a good indicator of indoor air quality. It is only relevant for human body-generated pollution and only when occupants have been in the room for hours. Low/normal CO2 can be associated with hazardous conditions, such as nitrogen dioxide or carbon monoxide released from unflued or damaged gas heaters. n

Dino Pisaniello is Chair of the AIHS College of Fellows and Adjunct Professor in Occupational Hygiene at the University of Adelaide.

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LAW

How are WA businesses responding to new WHS laws?

The recent commencement of new WHS laws in Western Australia presents a number of challenges for organisations and their health and safety leaders

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estern Australia’s Work Health and Safety Act 2020 and regulations were enacted on 31 March this year. The legislation effectively supersedes previous WHS laws, which have been in effect for more than 30 years and harmonises WA with other states and territories (except Victoria), though amendments have been made to tailor the laws to Western Australia.

“These important laws modernise Western Australia’s outdated workplace safety laws, which were over 30 years old, and will protect all workers – physically and mentally,” said WA’s Industrial Relations Minister, Bill Johnston. “It reflects the social obligations and responsibilities the community now expects from companies and their senior management. “The new Work Health and Safety Act provides all workplace participants to review their health and safety practices and make a new commitment to ensure all their staff are happy and healthy at work.”

How have the new WHS laws been welcomed by business?

Greg Smith, a partner with one of WA’s leading independent law firms, Jackson McDonald, said it is difficult to describe the reaction of businesses to the WHS laws in a general sense. “WHS has been talked about in Western Australia since at least 2008, and we have regularly been told that the legislation is coming for the last ten years,” he said.

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Jackson McDonald partner Greg Smith says OHS professionals in WA need to provide their organisation with meaningful advice about officers and their due diligence obligations

“Overall, I suspect there has been a level of WHS ‘reform fatigue’ by the time the WHS bill was passed in November 2020.

The fact that it then took until 31 March 2022 to finalise the regulations and enact the full suite of legislation contributed to a level of disinterest by the time the legislation was finally implemented.”

“I regularly talk to even quite large businesses who don’t recognise that the legislation has commenced”

Smith, who specialises in WHS, workplace and industrial relations law, also noted there does not seem to be a good level of preparedness for the legislation. “Indeed, I regularly talk to even quite large businesses who don’t recognise that the legislation has commenced. It is hard to say how widespread the lack of response to WHS legislation has been, but certainly, I would deal with organisations on a daily basis, where five months after the commencement of the legislation, no adjustments have been made to safety policies, procedures, or processes to account for different requirements,” he said.

How the new WHS laws are different Generally speaking, Smith said the WHS Act’s substantive duties are identical to

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The Category 1 offence

those under the previous legislation.

While there have been a lot of technical amendments to the regulations (which he said are likely to be problematic in the medium-term), the fundamental changes are really the substantial increase in penalties and the introduction of positive due diligence requirements for officers.

“In my view, the positive due diligence obligations for officers do not substantially change the substance of an officer’s obligations compared to the previous accessorial liability, but it is certainly much easier from a process and administrative perspective to prosecute company officers,” he said.

The other aspect of the WHS laws in the medium-term likely to be problematic is the change in language from employee and employer, and principal and contractor, to “person conducting a business or

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“This is a very disturbing aspect of the WHS legislation in WA which puts it significantly out of step with every other jurisdiction in Australia” undertaking and worker.” “I’m still dealing regularly with organisations who are being told that individuals who work within their organisations are persons conducting a business or undertaking,” said Smith.

“The new language is creating a significant amount of confusion, but hopefully, that will wash through the system in the medium-term.”

However, the biggest concern for business in Western Australia’s version of the WHS legislation is the Category 1 offence, according to Smith. “This offence provides that if a person has a health and safety duty and they fail to comply with that duty, and there is a causal relationship between that failure and the death of or serious harm to another person, then an individual is liable for a $340,000 fine and a five-year term of imprisonment,” Smith said.

Every other jurisdiction that attaches a term of imprisonment to a breach of health and safety duties has a minimum behavioural standard of recklessness.

“In other words, I need to breach my obligations under the WHS legislation in circumstances of recklessness,” he said.

For example, the version of the Category 1 offence under the Model WHS Act (section 31) sets a minimum behavioural standard of gross negligence or reckless conduct. The penalty, in that case, is a fine of $300,000 or a term of five years imprisonment or both.

In Western Australia, however, Smith said there is no minimum behavioural standard. “It is not gross negligence, it is not recklessness, it is not negligence, it is not carelessness – it is a simple causal relationship between my failure to comply with a WHS duty and the death of or serious harm to a person,” he said.

“We know, through case law in Western Australia, that people have been convicted of this type of offence in circumstances where they have made a mistake, failed to work in accordance with the JHA or failed to ensure that an exclusion zone was set up. In my view, this is a very disturbing aspect of the WHS legislation in WA, which puts it significantly out of step with every other jurisdiction in Australia.”

Other challenges for Western Australian business

Apart from the Category 1 offence provision outlined above, Smith also said organisations would take some time to understand the implications of the legislation in their business and how best to address that. He explained that part of the challenge would be sorting through the variety of advice in the market and working out what is an accurate reflection of the legislation.

“I also think one of the short-term challenges, particularly for larger organisations that already have bureaucratic, documented safety management systems, will be the technical administrative challenges of converting all of the policies and procedures to align with the requirements and language of

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LAW

“OHS professionals are likely to be at the frontline of the administrative challenge of converting documented systems to align with the new legislation” the new legislation, and then ensuring that information is passed on to their workforce,” he said.

Implications for OHS professionals

It is unlikely the new WHS legislation in Western Australia represents any particular problem for OHS professionals that might be over and above being able to effectively communicate what the new legislation means for their organisation and being able to talk clearly and accurately about

the import of the new language. “OHS professionals are likely to be at the frontline of the administrative challenge of converting documented systems to align with the new legislation,” Smith said.

However, there may be a challenge for OHS professionals to remain relevant to the senior echelons of organisations.

“In particular, I think it is important that OHS professionals are able to clearly and accurately describe the new duty relationships under WHS legislation (i.e.,

PCBU and worker) and to be able to give the organisation meaningful advice about who are officers and the content of their due diligence obligations,” said Smith.

As such, OHS leaders need to put themselves into the officers’ shoes and start taking on the due diligence obligations themselves, even if they do not technically apply to them, Smith said. “If the senior WHS leader in an organisation cannot clearly articulate whether the business is managing WHS reasonably practicably and show how they exercise due diligence in relation to the obligations of the organisation, then it is highly unlikely that the organisation and its officers will be able to,” he said. n

WA’s new WHS laws: key facts • The new laws recognise except Victoria, although to ensure compliance with the • Insurance will no longer modern work relationships amendments have been made laws, ensuring that the responcover penalties, ensuring that such as subcontractors and to tailor the laws to reflect the sibility for workplace safety persons conducting a business gig economy workers, and unique circumstances of WA. sits with those at the top of an undertaking are held accountintroduce the term ‘person This means companies that organisation’s hierarchy. able for their actions and conducting a business underoperate across Australia will • Industrial manslaughter is an are responsible for financial taking.’ Therefore, anyone who have similar obligations and offence under the new laws. It penalties. engages a WA worker has a requirements in each state and carries a maximum penalty of • In a national first, the new laws duty to protect their health and territory.

20 years imprisonment, a $5 bring together WHS for general safety, mentally and physically. • The new laws confirm that ofmillion fine for an individual, industry, mines, and petroleum • WA’s new laws harmonise with ficers (senior decision makers) and a maximum $10 million fine operations under a single WHS other states and territories, must exercise due diligence for a corporate body.

Act.

OHS PROFESSIONA L | SEPTEMBER 2022

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TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR CAREER AND BECOME CERTIFIED The AIHS Certification framework gives health and safety Professionals and Practitioners the structure and guidance to keep up with evolving industry expectations and stay competent

For more information visit www.aihs.org.au/certification or contact us E certification@aihs.org.au T (03) 8336 1995 @AIHS_OHS

@AustralianInstituteofHealthandSafety

Australian Institute of Health & Safety

18

COVER STORY

How digitalisation is impacting work design Digital technologies such as AI and machine learning are on the rise, and OHS professionals have an important role to play in guiding conversations about work design and the role of human workers

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ork design is an increasingly important issue as digital technologies reshape how work is done. While such technologies bring opportunities for work and society through augmenting human performance and taking on “dull, dirty and dangerous work”, they also have the potential to eradicate employment opportunities for some workers and lead to the creation of work that is more intense, lacking in control, and extensively monitored, according to Professor Sharon Parker, ARC Laureate Fellow and Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University.

There are many examples of this from around the world, according to Professor Parker. One illustrative example is the use of automation in train driving. Whilst automating the role of a train driver can potentially save costs for companies, the impact on drivers can be profound.

In one example that Parker cited, train drivers whose work has been automated report that they rarely drive trains anymore, creating work for many that is significantly less stimulating, engaging, and meaningful. As one worker described the situation: “Now we’re just forgotten, we’re the band-aids.” While the train drivers’ knowledge and input were critical to creating the automation in the first place, the role of the human worker was not given enough attention in the implementation of the automation – a common scenario for similar applications around the world.

Professor Parker referred to the

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technocentric mindset that can come into play when implementing new technologies: “After knowledge and skill is extracted to design a system, often there is little effort to think about human workers’ skills and their knowledge”. The technology is designed and implemented with a focus on efficiency, and because it’s often designed by engineers and purchased by finance executives, the main objective of such technology is replacing the human worker.

“After knowledge and skill is extracted to design a system, often there is little effort to think about human workers’ skills and their knowledge” “That’s a very different mindset to the mindset I think we need, which is a sociotechnical mindset, in which we seek to optimise both the technology and human work design at the same time. We should be thinking about how technology can enhance human performance through creating better work, not just how can technology replace human performance.

A lot of the catastrophes, and insidious risks that we see emerging, arise because of a narrow technocentric perspective.”

How digitalisation is changing work In this context, work design is important because digitalisation is changing work

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COVER STORY

rather than eradicating it. Another reason work design is increasingly on the radar is because digitalisation accelerated over the past two-plus years during COVID. While much media was talking about how automation and AI would take peoples’ jobs pre-COVID, Professor Parker described this as rhetoric and said the reality tends to be different. “Most of the research (and history) shows whole jobs are rarely being replaced, but rather tasks within jobs have been swapped out. Some statistics show that 30 per cent of tasks within 60 per cent of jobs right now can be automated,” she said.

“So, what that means is we have to give a lot more attention to what tasks humans do, what tasks technology takes on, how these activities are coordinated, who’s responsible and accountable, and who makes decisions – all fundamentally work design questions.”

“A lot of the catastrophes, and insidious risks that we see emerging, arise because of a narrow technocentric perspective” Apart from addressing work design issues around how work is changing and what tasks are changing, Professor Parker said work is also changing in terms of where and when people work, with the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work. “The skills people need to be successful in this new world are different.

And it’s not just about STEM skills … what we also need are those critical human skills that the machines can’t do.

So those are things like being creative, solving complex problems, and adapting to change,” said Professor Parker.

A SMART work design model

According to Professor Parker, who developed a “SMART” work design model based on a higher order statistical analysis, a number of elements should be factored into good work design. The first of the five components in this acronym model is Stimulating work, which is work that provides some variety and provides individuals with a sense of meaning and some challenge while utilising their skills.

The second component is Mastery. This is about recognising that most people want to perform at a high level in their job, which requires mastering their tasks.

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To do this, workers require clarity on their roles and responsibilities, as well as feedback about how they are performing.

“And it helps if they’ve got a sense of where their job sits in the bigger picture of the organisation,” said Parker.

The third component is Agency or Autonomy. This is about the fundamental importance of humans being able to control and impact the environment they operate in, such as influencing how they do their work, the order of their tasks, and generally having input into their job activities. “Autonomy is a word you’ll be familiar with; we changed it because, being from Western Australia, we have a lot of automated mines. And we had a few conversations where we were talking about human autonomy, and they were talking about machine autonomy. And I realised, okay, we maybe need to stop calling it autonomy, and call it agency because we mean human agency,” said Parker.

The fourth component is Relational, which recognises that all human beings have a fundamental need to connect, belong and be part of something. “And haven’t we learned that through COVID, more than ever. In a work context, relational aspects are important; people want to be able to have connection with other people,” said Parker, who added that workers want support from their supervisor and their peers, so they feel part of something bigger.

The final component is Tolerable demands – which Parker said is a “big issue in many sectors right now.” Work means putting in effort, whether physical, emotional, cognitive and/or other forms of effort; however, the demands on workers need to be experienced as tolerable and manageable, said Parker.

If people experience levels of workload, emotional demands, or other sorts of work pressures that are overwhelming, their work is low on Tolerable – “a situation, unfortunately, we are seeing all too often in contemporary jobs”.

Parker reported there is a “huge amount of evidence” that all of the aspects of this SMART model of work design are important for mental health in the workplace.

The links between work design and OHS

A large-scale study based on data from the UK found that, out of all HR management practices, empowering workers to have more control over their work was the best positive predictor of a low amount of injuries in the workplace. While this may run somewhat counter to conventional thought that control has to be taken away from workers to make

things safe, Parker said giving workers more control typically makes things safer because it generates ownership and motivation to work more safely.

This research has a number of important implications for digital technologies and work. On the one hand, work should ideally become more stimulating, given that digital technologies are meant to replace all or certain “dull, dirty and dangerous” tasks associated with work. There are examples of an increase in challenging work occurring as a result of digital technologies being implemented in some workplaces. But this is not always the case in practice, according to Parker.

“We’re also seeing a growth in passive monitoring jobs. In other words, these are the jobs that were like the rail drivers; the worker’s job is to monitor the screen to wait for a breakdown of the technology.

And these jobs are not necessarily very stimulating because they maybe only break down once a week or whatever.”

There has also been a growth in “online micro work”, and Parker gave the example of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), which is a crowdsourcing platform that businesses can use to hire remotely located “crowd workers” to perform specific tasks (that computers are unable

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in the environment and act. And that ‘being out of the loop’ phenomenon is a cause of several accidents. We see the same phenomena when pilots talk about forgetting how to fly, because they’re not using their skills anymore – which is the same phenomenon in the robotic surgery example above,” she said.

Helping – not replacing – human workers

to complete) as part of a broader job or project. “Often people are asked to do just a tiny sliver of work, a very narrow task, that’s highly routine. And we’re seeing more and more of that sort of work emerging as well,” said Parker.

She gave the example of robotic surgery with the story of a scrub nurse. In an operating theatre, the most expensive person is the surgeon, so robotic surgery is designed to maximise what the surgeon does by using technology. However, in one case study, nurses only had a limited number of tasks to perform during an operation, such as preparing instrument tables at the beginning of surgery. “So their jobs became leftover work that was very unstimulating as a consequence. This is a classic case of the technology being introduced without sufficient attention to human work roles.”

Mastery and learning can also be affected by the implementation of new technologies. One study of medical residents who were learning to become surgeons was conducted. A quote from the chair of Urology in the study about the residents was: “They trained in top programs that teach robotic surgery, and they suck. I mean, these guys can’t do it. They haven’t any experience doing it.

They’ve watched it happen. But watching

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the movie doesn’t make you an actor.”

This example again highlights the need to look at human work proactively when new technologies are introduced.

“It’s not just about STEM skills … what we also need are those critical human skills that the machines can’t do” Another example can be found in the aviation industry, and there have been some “very famous accidents” in the history of aviation which have to do with pilots not being actively engaged in flying because of overreliance on the automated flying system, said Parker. “And then suddenly, something goes wrong. And the pilot has to immediately figure out what to do. But the pilot has lost situational awareness because no pilot could sit in the cockpit for nine hours and remain completely vigilant about everything that’s going on. It’s humanly not possible.

So they mentally switch off, and then something goes wrong. And they’ve got to immediately know what’s happening

While technology can and is playing a more significant role in work, Parker reiterated the importance of adopting a mindset that is not about replacing human workers but more about helping them.

She gave the example of work she conducted with some geneticists who diagnose rare diseases. These geneticists use a database called a patient archive, which analyses data from around the world based on a range of algorithms.

And this analysis allows the geneticists to make more informed decisions based on the right kind of data, and there are other databases they also analyse for insights.

“So they don’t allow the patient archive to dictate the decisions,” said Parker, who explained that this approach is more about augmenting human performance with technology, rather than turning to the technology as the one-and-only solution (and potentially saving money on geneticists in the process).

“What I’m suggesting is, let’s be proactive and ask, when technologies are implemented, how can we create better work? How do we optimise this technology in terms of the human work role? We can go even further, and that is influencing the design of the technology.

One of the problems is that the technology is already very constrained, and often the work design options for humans are already impossible because the technology has been designed without giving any opportunities to influence how it is used. Social scientists and health and safety experts should actually influence the design of the technology,” said Parker, whose colleagues have been doing some work with the Australian Navy on their submarines. This work was focused on the design of the submarines from a human perspective and factoring in elements to reduce fatigue and improve mental health rather than just focusing on operational efficiencies as the dominant priority.

“We could actually think about the design of work before the technology is introduced, or as it’s being introduced.

And that might deliver these positive benefits for work design. So, what I’m suggesting here is when new technology is being commissioned, purchased, and

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“A huge amount of investment is currently going into technical design of new digital technologies; much, much more than the investment that goes into thinking about some of the challenges and the risks for workers” implemented, we should be thinking about what’s the human role going to be? And how can we create a smart work design for that human role?” said Parker.

She observed there is a pressing need for more research into work design and technology, with a focus on questions such as how to maintain human skills and learning when AI is introduced, and what are the risks to performance and safety when automation is relied on too heavily.

“Automation surprises” and the airline industry One of the more common issues with digitalisation is a lack of “teamwork”

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between humans and machines. This is essentially a lack of trust, so human workers either don’t use the technology at all, or don’t use it to its fullest potential.

“There are plenty of examples with very fancy gadgets, and people don’t use all their features because they don’t trust them (or maybe they don’t know how to use them),” said Parker.

“But equally, you can also trust too much in technology. And that’s where you get those things called automation surprises, which is where you think technology has got it all sorted. But then something goes wrong, and you trust so much that you become complacent – and

that’s when some of these catastrophes can happen.” Parker gave two examples from the airline industry – the first being the Boeing 737 Max that went down in Indonesia in 2018. At the time, there were strong recommendations about the technology used in the Boeing 737 Max – but there were not followed through with.

And six months later, another Boeing 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia, killing many people.

“Just to unpack that a little bit, there’s been a lot of academic analysis about the Boeing 737 Max crashes and why they happened. There were a number of contributing factors, including poor documentation, a rushed release, delayed software updates and humans being out of the loop. So the pilots, in the case of the Boeing 737 Max, were not even fully aware that this technology had been introduced. And to save costs, Boeing had decided not to consider this a major change, because of the training

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implications. So, the pilots were flying with technology that they were largely unaware of. And because of this, they were unable to do anything about it when the technology malfunctioned. They were not able to correct the flight because they were out of the loop,” said Parker.

More generally, aviation authorities have observed that pilots were sometimes forgetting how to fly because they rely so heavily on autopilot. “And then when an emergency happens, they’re really rusty.

So some authorities have mandated that pilots would manually fly the plane for greater lengths of time so they could keep their skills up. So that mandate is a good solution; we’re not incapable of coming up with good solutions,” said Parker.

Involving OHS in the discussion While there are many designers, developers, and other providers advocating for the benefits of technologies such as AI and machine

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learning, Parker observed there are fewer talking about the risks of adopting such technologies. “A huge amount of investment is currently going into the technical design of new digital technologies; much, much more than the investment that goes into thinking about some of the challenges and the risks for workers. I guess I’m trying to correct what I see as a very dominant techno-centric perspective,” she said.

“We do a lot of work with industry, and sometimes we have conversations around creating good work purely from a performance perspective; we don’t even mention the words mental health or well-being, even though we know that well-designed work is also good for these outcomes. Then we have other conversations with different stakeholders about the mental health crisis, and we come at it from that angle. We adjust our framing and look at what sort of benefits you get depending on the specific audience that we’re dealing with and the challenges they face. Different people get focused and energised by different things.”

When talking with industry, though, Parker said it is important to provide examples of performance failure as a consequence of ignoring human workers.

She encouraged OHS professionals in particular to embrace the fact that there are risks to good work design associated with technology, and to try and address these. “I’m not encouraging people to go out there and simply be negative, because that often will get you nowhere.

But you need to understand and convey what the real risks are,” said Parker, who added that health and safety professionals have a “huge opportunity to make a big difference” because there is a dire need for someone to strongly advocate for the safety and well-being of workers in the process.

“I think health and safety professionals can play a really important role in this journey. I always love to end this talk with a quote by futurist John Scharr: “The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.” n Parker recently spoke on “Proactive adaptivity: Designing digital work for health, well-being and performance” at the 2022 Dr Eric Wigglesworth AM Memorial Lecture, held at the SMC Sydney Masonic Centre. For more information, please visit www.smartworkdesign.com.au.

Automation and the future of work Automation, in tandem with the COVID-19 recession, is creating a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020. In addition to the current disruption from the pandemic-induced lockdowns and economic contraction, technological adoption by companies will transform tasks, jobs, and skills by 2025.

The report found that 43 per cent of businesses surveyed indicate they are set to reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41 per cent plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialised work, and 34 per cent plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration. By 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal. A significant share of companies also expect to make changes to locations, their value chains, and the size of their workforce due to factors beyond technology in the next five years.

Although the number of jobs destroyed will be surpassed by the number of ‘jobs of tomorrow’ created, in contrast to previous years, job creation is slowing while job destruction accelerates. Employers expect that by 2025, increasingly redundant roles will decline from 15.4 per cent of the workforce to 9 per cent (6.4 per cent decline), and that emerging professions will grow from 7.8 per cent to 13.5 per cent (5.7 per cent growth) of the total employee base of company respondents. Based on these figures, the report said that by 2025, 85 million jobs might be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines, and algorithms.

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OHS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Principles of good work design: an OHS Body of Knowledge overview Work design is a fundamental component of good health and safety in the workplace, and OHS professionals are well placed to support organisational work design and redesign efforts

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ccording to Safe Work Australia, good work design can protect workers from harm to their health and safety, improve worker health and well-being, improve job satisfaction and performance, and improve business success through higher worker productivity and innovation.

In recognition of the rising importance of work design, the OHS Body of Knowledge will include a new major chapter on the field of study and practice. This new chapter examines the relationship between work design and occupational health, safety, and wellbeing. It is the third in a suite of OHS Body of Knowledge chapters focused on design. While chapter 34.2 An

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Introduction to User-Centred Safe Design and chapter 34.3 Health and Safety in Design address the design of physical elements of work (work environment, workstations, plant and equipment), this chapter addresses psychosocial work design characteristics. It covers the righthand side of figure 1.

This chapter describes the theoretical understanding of work design based on more than a century of research and clarifies the relevance of work design principles for OHS professionals.

Why work design is essential for OHS Work design describes the content and organisation of work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities,

according to chapter co-author Laura Fruhen, lecturer, Psychology at Work Laboratory, School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia. “In other words, it is concerned with the core aspects of how we work.

Work can be really good for people’s mental health and well-being when designed well, but just as detrimental when designed badly,” she said.

At a societal level, Fruhen explained that mental health issues are more and more common, and it is important to consider the role that work has to play here. “After all, most of us spend a third of each day at work. Paying attention to the principles of good work design is a key for ensuring health and safety in workplaces,” Fruhen said.

The role of OHS professionals in work design

Celia Antonovsky, HSEQ manager for Transdev and a director of the Australian

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Institute of Health & Safety, noted that it is the duty of OHS professionals to facilitate organisations and PCBU’s specifically; to discharge their primary duty to ensure the health and safety of workers while they are at work. “The expectation that health and safety extend to a worker’s psychological state has now been well established,” said Antonovsky, who also provided consultative input to the development of the chapter.

“Good work design is one of the most powerful levers in the toolkit to prevent psychological harm along with other tangible elements connected to a poor safety culture such as high turnover, burnout, or poor performance.”

Figure 1: Key work design characteristics and associated hazards, Safe Work Australia

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As such, she affirmed that OHS professionals have an opportunity and an obligation to act as a conduit between contemporary research, evidence-based practice, and the people in organisations responsible for deciding how work is performed. If OHS professionals do not equip themselves with contemporary information or useful tools to enable good work design, Antonovsky said they are missing a substantial opportunity to influence the work world positively.

“Historically, there has been an expectation that individuals should adapt to the characteristics of the work rather than putting people as the centre of the environment, task, and role design,” she said.

Pam Pryor, Manager OHS Body of Knowledge Development, highlighted that good work design is the most important, primary high-level control for psychosocial hazards and for creating a psychologically safe and healthy workplace.

“The OHS professional has a key role in the prevention of psychosocial risk through good work design by advocating for the features of good work design and sharing knowledge

of its importance in the hierarchy of controls not only for psychosocial hazards but for all of the other benefits flowing from good work design,” she said.

“Work can be really good for people’s mental health and well-being when designed well, but just as detrimental when designed badly” Pryor goes on to say that the OHS professional can only fulfil their advocacy and leadership role in good work design if they understand the theoretical models and evidence-based research underpinning the linkages between the various attributes, influences, and outcomes of work design. “Good work design is not a feelgood activity but one that must be based on current knowledge both of the work design principles and the organisational environment,” she said.

(See table of contents for chapter in pull-out box for an outline of the depth of such knowledge that should inform OHS practice.)

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OHS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Work design as it relates to safety, health, and well-being

Poorly designed work, reflected in unfavourable work design characteristics, can create a range of hazards in the workplace, according to chapter coauthor Lisette Kanse, senior lecturer, Psychology at Work Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia. These include hazards of a physical or biological nature, if a task is designed in a way that places unsafe demands or exposure on a worker’s body, and hazards resulting from tasks that aren’t designed with human operators’ cognitive strengths and weaknesses in mind.

“Importantly, poorly designed work also creates hazards of a psychosocial nature. That is, hazards that can harm a worker’s mental health. More and more, we find regulators and industries paying attention to psychosocial hazards in recognition of the impact that work has on people’s mental health,” said Kanse, who explained that the main focus of the OHS Body of Knowledge chapter on work design is on work design characteristics linked with psychosocial hazards.

Fruhen elaborated on this point and noted that work design is focused on getting the essence of work right so that psychosocial hazards are minimised – for example, by designing work with sufficient attention to resources such as task variety, autonomy, or support from team members and leaders. Fruhen said these are key work design characteristics that contribute to worker well-being.

Likewise, it is also critical to consider demands, such as workload, error consequences or monitoring demands.

“Making sure work is designed well will support organisations in creating healthy work that will protect mental health while at the same time boosting performance, retention, and reducing absences. The OHS Body of Knowledge chapter explains what can be done to design work well,” she said.

Antonovsky adds that there are many examples of good and bad work design that vary depending on the type of work being performed. Some typical examples are overloading, underloading, or conflicting role demands, which may result in a myriad of unwanted consequences such as procedural violations, corners being cut, complacency, disengagement, psychological injury, frustration, burnout, and high turnover and interpersonal conflict.

“Another example might include a low locus of control whereby workers

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do not feel they have the power to influence change or improvement,” said Antonovsky. “In some circumstances, this might not be overly concerning; however, in high-risk or high-consequence environments, this is very dangerous.

Creating a psychologically safe workplace where these workers can speak up about poor work design or opportunities for improvement is critical.”

How organisations can improve work design

There are a number of steps organisations can take to improve work design – and Fruhen said a good one is actually to familiarise themselves with what it is.

“The OHS Body of Knowledge chapter will give organisational stakeholders a great overview of theory and knowledge in this area that has been generated over decades.

Research actually shows that those who have a richer knowledge of work design create better-designed jobs,” she said.

“Creating a psychologically safe workplace where these workers can speak up about poor work design or opportunities for improvement is critical” An important part of this process is to recognise that motivational sources such as pay and chances of promotion need to be balanced with other aspects that make work rewarding, such as a chance to feel good about oneself and to develop new skills. Another important step, which is covered in the OHS Body of Knowledge chapter, is to take a good look at the current work design of employees, assess it, and systematically work out which demands and resources may need addressing. “Following that, any changes to work design should be co-designed with role incumbents, as we know their involvement is key to making work design a success. And once you have made changes, make sure to follow up and see whether they are working out the way they were intended,” said Fruhen.

Planning is also critical to effective work design, according to Effie Eleftheriadis, manager of safety operations – transformation for the Department of Transport in Victoria.

She said it is vital that planning is acknowledged as the first step in any task or activity – which should always allow for a risk assessment to consider new activities and changes to existing activities or conditions. “Planning will consider the use of the right plant equipment, or chemicals which support the completion of the activity and identify whether additional expertise, e.g., hygienist, IT, procurement etc., may be required to help inform the decision making. Involving key decision makers at this stage and allowing time for the consultation outcomes to influence the procurement and planning process will drive improvements in time, cost, and quality outcomes,” said Eleftheriadis.

Implementing human-centred design principles will also ensure that all end users are considered – the workers completing the activities, the workers involved in the inspection/ maintenance or servicing components of these activities, and the potential impacts on key stakeholders, which may include members of the public. Understanding all the end users who may be impacted also ensures that their needs are considered (language needs may impact how information is to be conveyed and technology adoption), thereby providing a solution which can meet the business needs, Eleftheriadis explained.

“Incorporating work design practices into existing processes can assist with embedding new ways of working: discussing risk assessment outcomes as an agenda item in regular meetings, specifying the requirement to review work design methodologies in contracts, and recognising and rewarding leaders’ safety performance when hazard elimination is successful are some of the ways organisations can improve work design,” said Eleftheriadis.

Antonovsky added that organisations should not take a ‘set and forget’ approach to work design. “Fostering a learning culture that identifies what is working and what requires refinement is essential,” said Antonovsky, who also said taking a worker-centred approach to understand work design is vital, as the people who do the work typically understand it best. “To complement their insights, there are many validated tools that can be used to measure aspects of work design, such as evaluating workers’ perception of workload. By periodically evaluating work design and promoting a continuous improvement culture, the organisation is well positioned to have a productive, positive, and engaged workforce,” she said.

Kanse noted that many stakeholders in the organisation could play a role in

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“So, the selection of noise-reducing plant and equipment not only reduces the risk of hearing loss but can have an indirect impact on stress and incident reduction for the impacted workers,” said Eleftheriadis.

“From another lens, upgrading vehicle fleets should involve the participation of the workers who will be using the vehicles as their workplace. In addition to the safety features of vehicles to address the risks of a vehicle incident, workers should be able to test and pilot the new vehicle to ensure it meets their driving needs, it is a good ergonomic fit, and the interaction between worker and vehicle is optimal. Again, the potential for injury through poor posture and poor comfort is much easier to address in the procurement process.” n

assessing and improving work design, ranging from managers, and the HR department, to team leaders and even employees themselves for their own jobs. “OHS professionals are well placed to support work design and redesign efforts, based on their detailed knowledge of work health and safety risks. The OHS Body of Knowledge chapter is a great resource for them to further their understanding of how work design characteristics can either cause or attenuate psychosocial hazards in the workplace,” concluded Kanse.

Hazard management and work design

In the new work design chapter in the OHS Body of Knowledge, section 3.5 discusses the “SMART” model of work design, a framework which was developed

by Sharon Parker and colleagues at the Centre for Transformative Work Design (for more information on this please see the cover story for this issue, beginning page 18). This framework outlines a number of hazards and risks to good work design under tolerable demands on workers, including time pressures, emotional demands and role conflicts.

Eleftheriadis elaborates on these and says the main objective of health and safety professionals is to assist the organisation and its leaders in managing the risks associated with their business activities. Risks may arise through the inherent nature of the activities themselves, however, Eleftheriadis said they could also present through inadequate planning, organisational procurement choices, changes introduced to the way activities are performed, the

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environment in which the activities occur, and the interaction of assets and activities within this environment.

“Enabling good work design at the ‘upstream’ stage offers an opportunity to eliminate hazards through improved planning or procurement choices and can showcase how health and safety can effect improved business and operational outcomes. To be an effective change agent and influencer, a health and safety professional needs to understand and appreciate the organisational context in which we operate and the organisational drivers to be effective in that change,” said Eleftheriadis, who provided consultative input to the development of the new OHS Body of Knowledge chapter.

“Upstream hazard elimination is cheaper, requires little to no retrofitting, and leads to less delays and less rework, which all contribute to an organisation’s bottom line and operational performance.

Good work design offers solutions which aim at the higher order controls, thereby encouraging innovative ways of working with administrative controls playing a support role in the management of risk.”

Eleftheriadis gave the example of the construction industry which uses noiseemitting plant and equipment. The risk of noise exposure could be compounded when multiple parties working adjacent to each other use plant and equipment that may be controlled for each individual worker but do not consider the risks to other workers or the public. Noise exposure also contributes to fatigue, which she said is a significant risk in an industry that works long hours in an environment impacted by extreme weather conditions and where work can be very manual.

OHS Body of Knowledge work design chapter table of contents 1 Introduction 2 Historical perspective 3 Work design – current theory and models 3.1 Job characteristics model 3.2 Expanded work design model 3.3 Job demands–control model 3.4 Job demands–resources model 3.5 SMART model 3.6 Teamwork 3.7 Key points 4 Outcomes of work design 4.1 Individual, team and organisational outcomes 4.2 Safety outcomes 4.3 Balancing work design characteristics 5 Influences on work design 5.1 External factors 5.2 Organisational factors 5.3 Work group factors 5.4 Individual factors 5.5 Top-down work design by managers 5.6 Triggers for work (re)design 6 Measuring work design 7 Top-down work redesign interventions 8 Job crafting (bottom-up work redesign) 9 Role of OHS professionals 10 Summary The AIHS is running a series of webinars in 2022 discussing the OHS Body of Knowledge. For more information, visit the AIHS events website.

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REGULATORY

Jacqueline Agius: at the helm of WHS in the ACT There are a number of ongoing health and safety challenges that need to be addressed in the ACT, according to territory’s WHS Commissioner, Jacqueline Agius

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sychosocial hazards have come into sharp relief over the past two-plus years with the advent of COVID. These hazards are also a key focus for Safe Work Australia and regulators such as WorkSafe ACT, according to the territory’s Work Health and Safety Commissioner, Jacqueline Agius. “When I began in this role, I really wanted to ensure that WHS legislation and regulation could be applied, so there was an improvement in risk management and reduction in psychological hazards in workplaces,” she said.

The regulator launched a formal twoyear strategy for tackling psychosocial hazards (Strategy for Managing WorkRelated Psychosocial Hazards 2021-23) in October last year, and Agius said this strategy underpins five goals for the regulator with regards to psychosocial hazards: • Building understanding and awareness of workplace obligations • Ensuring PCBUs are appropriately assessing risk and implementing control measures and safe systems of work • Ensuring incidents are reported • Ensuring appropriate regulatory action, and • Assisting in the development of a mature and sophisticated workforce that addresses psychosocial hazards in the same way as physical hazards.

The strategy focuses on several key areas, including managing work-related violence and aggression and managing work-related sexual harassment. “The risk of harm from all psychosocial hazards is immense. On average, work-related psychological injuries have longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work. We aim to protect all workers from these harms,

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and I am particularly passionate about preventing work-related violence and aggression,” said Agius.

To assist in this process, WorkSafe ACT has developed a digital survey to gauge the maturity level of organisations, and this aids the regulator in providing on-the-spot assistance to businesses who need help with meeting their work health and safety obligations for managing psychosocial hazards.

“We’ve also heard a number of things in relation to young workers around those psychosocial hazards,” said Agius.

“The issues around young workers being vulnerable relate to a number of things, including fear of losing a job or not being able to speak up; they don’t know how safety works. So, one element of our psychosocial hazards strategy is looking at ways that we can work to support young workers in the ACT by working with other agencies and taking a compliance enforcement approach.”

Improving OHS in the construction sector

Another key focus for the regulator in terms of sectors is construction – both residential and commercial. “I think it’s fairly similar around Australia, in that we see the most serious injuries and death in the construction industry, and the ACT has had a pretty poor record,” said Agius.

WorkSafe ACT recently launched an updated Residential Construction Strategy for 2022-24 to improve OHS outcomes in the industry, which has the highest number of workers’ compensation claims for the past five years compared to other sectors in the territory.

The most common offences in the sector have not significantly changed over the past two years, with breaches for not managing the risks of falls from

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WorkSafe ACT Work Health and Safety Commissioner Jacqueline Agius says there should be an opportunity for all team leaders to discuss WHS as part of their team meetings

heights, not securing the workplace, and inadequate scaffolding featuring consistently across the ACT. Inadequate site security management, provision of suitable worker amenities, and management of falls from heights are some of the most common WHS breaches witnessed in the ACT’s residential construction industry.

“We’ve got a particular focus on the construction industry, and we’ll continue that focus over the next 12 months to ensure that we work to prevent further deaths and serious injuries in that industry. We had two deaths in early 2020, so prior to me beginning at WorkSafe, we knew there was a need to ensure that we were improving compliance and the safety culture in the residential construction sector,” said Agius.

“When I first started, I went out with some of my inspectors to a greenfield suburb, and I have to say I was shocked by what I saw. So ‘operation prospect’ – our proactive WHS compliance programme for the construction industry – grew out of that. Our inspectors visit greenfield and brownfield sites across Canberra to make sure safety requirements are being followed. WorkSafe ACT inspectors are constantly on the ground enforcing the WHS provisions. In 2020-2021, twice as many improvement notices were issued per visit compared to the previous year,” she said.

Silica dust exposure

Another focus for WorkSafe ACT is addressing and reducing risks around

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REGULATORY

silica dust exposure in the workplace.

The regulator’s 2021-2023 Strategy for Preventing Occupational Lung Diseases focuses on improving understanding of what can cause occupational lung diseases and how to effectively prevent them, said Agius.

“This work represents a framework to prevent occupational lung diseases. With the effects on the lungs and the impacts of long COVID not yet fully understood from a WHS perspective, I see that COVID-19 may yet form part of a future revision of this strategy,” she said. “Silicosis is an insidious and preventable disease. Here in the ACT, we have not taken the effects of silica dust lightly.”

With a national rise in occupational lung disease silicosis cases, crystalline silica is a priority substance under WorkSafe ACT’s strategic plan 2020-24.

In collaboration with stakeholders and industry and union partners, WorkSafe ACT also released a guide to assist in managing the risks of silica dust across the construction industry. According to Agius, the strategy and guidance are being implemented in targeted proactive campaigns over 2022-2024 and supported

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by resources to help duty holders comply when tackling issues such as air quality, working in weather and welding fumes.

Reinforcing WHS through workplace culture

A common impediment to minimising or eliminating unsafe workplace practices is not having a culture that allows people to raise and discuss the hazards and risks in the workplace, according to Agius, who said this is particularly the case with sexual harassment in the workplace. “We know that the Respect@Work report found that one in three women and one in five men either experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in workplaces, which is just a staggering figure,” she said.

“A healthy workplace culture is incredibly important, one that means health and safety is valued in your organisation. For safety to be truly effective, it needs to be embedded throughout the entire organisation, and this includes looking at work health and safety through the design of work and the design of organisations.

When we think about designing an organisation, we should be considering

things like the working environment. For example, what’s the lighting like? What workplace interactions do people have?

It’s particularly important to consider eliminating and managing psychosocial hazards when you’re designing the work or the workforce. I also think it’s important for WHS to evaluate their own management style and consult with the workers in their processes, sharing their expertise and creating strong relationships within the organisation to build a culture of safety.

“It is also important to remember that we all have a role to play in work health and safety and that we are all responsible for raising any work health and safety concerns with managers and supervisors. I’ve often had the question, ‘what’s the biggest risk to work health and safety?’ and I have to say the biggest risk is not knowing that there’s a risk – because if we don’t know there’s a risk, we won’t do anything about it. As a manager of a workplace, we need to ensure that we’re taking active steps to find out what the risks are in our workplace. Simply saying ‘you can log your incident with your work health and safety contact’ isn’t enough. We need to be actively out there

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finding out what the issues are,” she said.

Agius underscored the importance of health, safety, and well-being conversations – both formal and informal.

“We need to give work health and safety professionals the opportunity to raise work health and safety issues. There should be an opportunity for all team leaders to discuss workplace health and safety as part of their team meetings as well.”

The evolving role of technology

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in WorkSafe ACT, according to Agius. “Some of this is around how we are using new technology to make processes quicker and smarter. For example, we have a digitalised programme for undertaking our inspections and collecting and analysing inspection data. We’re starting with priority industries, and this technology will eventually move across our entire spectrum of activities,” she said.

Another example can be found in WorkSafe ACT’s use of a digital survey (mentioned earlier) to gauge whether businesses need help meeting their work health and safety obligations for managing psychosocial hazards. “We can measure

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the maturity and the weaknesses of these organisations when it comes to managing psychosocial hazards, and this provides them with important feedback in the process,” said Agius.

“It is a risk to any regulator to have different people going out to the same worksite and coming up with a different outcome” While there are benefits associated with adopting technology, there are also challenges for regulators, she added. One of these is to ensure advice provided and work conducted is consistent across the range of action programmes the regulator initiates. According to Agius: “it is a risk to any regulator to have different people going out to the same worksite and coming up with a different outcome, so this is

about being able to achieve consistent case management outcomes in the end,” she explained.

Technology is also being leveraged to provide better service to industry stakeholders, such as general resources for PCBUs or more targeted information that assists them to progress toward their own best practice and to improve compliance.

Technology in the form of safety management systems also plays an important role in industry, added Agius, who said this is a hallmark of organisations that have strong WHS. “Businesses need the right safety management systems in their work, coupled with very high standards across things like monitoring, implementation, reviewing and analysis to make sure risks and hazards are managed, controlled, or eliminated at all times. Businesses that take this approach and genuinely consult with the workers, training and supervising them to undertake work safely, stand out. These businesses demonstrate a strong culture that promotes open discussion around hazards and risks and how to improve WHS,” she said. n

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Regional safety in the safety spotlight The 2022 Victorian Safety Symposium focused on a range of issues that are key to lifting health and safety standards across regional and rural Victoria

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he Victorian Branch Committee of the Australian Institute of Health & Safety recently convened the 2022 Victorian Safety Symposium, held at the Mercure Ballarat Convention & Exhibition Centre. In 2022, regional workers are still more likely to experience greater rates of harm than metropolitanbased workers, and the focus of the symposium was ‘lifting regional Victoria’s health and safety’. The event featured a range of speakers who discussed topics including occupational violence and aggression; critical risk; regional risk management; and governance and leadership in action.

How to put health on the corporate risk agenda

One of the speakers for the symposium was John Darcy, senior farm safety advisor for the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF). In working with farmers to improve OHS on the ground, he said the key step for them is to “put a stake in the ground and start the journey.”

The vast majority of farming businesses are family-owned farms with only a handful of employees. While they may not be small in terms of revenue and turnover, Darcy said most farming businesses are micro-sized employers.

The horticulture sector is one of the largest employing sectors in the industry, with heavy reliance upon overseas labour, predominantly from the Pacific Islands.

“Safety professionals are very few and far between in the agriculture sector.

With 20,000 farms in Victoria alone, the likelihood that a farmer will see an inspector is relatively small, and the chances that they will attend an OHS training course are even less,” said Darcy.

“The three to four hours that a consultant, typically under WorkSafe’s OHS essentials program, or a Making Our Farms Safer (MOFS) safety advisor spends at the dining table with your typical mum and dad farming family is probably as much safety advice as these

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small business farmers will ever receive.”

Darcy said it would be “fanciful” to think that the work done over the past two years has improved the safety outcomes of the Victorian farming industry. He noted that the number of farming incidents did decrease significantly in 2021, both in Victoria and nationally.

The WorkSafe ‘It’s never you till it is’ campaign, combined with the significant ‘safety culture’ focus of the VFF’s MOFS project, is unquestionably having an effect on the psyche of Victorian farmers, said Darcy.

“Farmers have a strong recall of the TV advertisements and also the messages that are contained in the monthly MOFS newsletter. Cultural change across the industry cannot be achieved through one advertising campaign or through a year or two of targeted messaging; cultural change takes years,” he said.

“It cannot be forgotten, however, that for the best part of the last decade, farmers have repeatedly been fighting for their very survival” He also observed that, over the past two years, the farming industry has been hammered by COVID and the loss of overseas seasonal workers and backpacker labour. “Many in the community would have lost sight of the procession of catastrophes that hit the industry with droughts, floods, and bushfires prior to COVID, and now the livestock sector is battling the risk of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD),” he said.

Livestock and sheep farmers might seem like they are doing well at the

moment, with good beef and wool prices, while grain farmers have also experienced record crops for the past two years. “It cannot be forgotten, however, that for the best part of the last decade, farmers have repeatedly been fighting for their very survival,” said Darcy.

“During COVID, farmers worked extremely hard without the additional seasonal backpacker and foreign worker labour on their farms. Grain farmers, with their handful of staff, worked seven-day weeks at 12-14 hours per day to get out their harvests. Some fruit growers had to let the fruit die on their trees because they simply did not have the labour to pick it. As farmers have had so many challenges, safety has been pushed back for a long time as a business priority. With good farming seasons, farmers are, and will, invest back into their farms, with new safer and more productive farm machinery,” he said.

Farmers are also thirsting for OHS knowledge, according to Darcy, who

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said this is one of the areas where the VFF MOFS project is having the greatest effect: “we are telling farmers stuff they do not know and communicating in a language that they understand,” he said.

“Farmers resonate with their industry bodies; dairy farmers look to their dairy industry group, and grain farmers do the same. When we meet with farmers and talk them through what they need to know, we also provide them with a very easy-to-follow action plan.”

The vast majority of farmers want to be told what they have to do in order to comply, and Darcy said that is a big part of the role that the MOFS project is facilitating, in conjunction with WorkSafe and the Department of Agriculture.

Addressing occupational violence and aggression in regional areas Also speaking at the event was Joanne Daley, managing director of Sterling Safety, who said there are a number of common challenges in addressing

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occupational violence and aggression in regional, rural, and remote settings.

Occupational violence and aggression in regional, rural, and remote settings is not a new issue; however, it is one that is gaining traction, according to Daley, who added that a genuine commitment to a positive safety culture should be a priority in addressing these challenges.

“There is a raised awareness that violence and aggression are not okay in any shape or form, no matter where you work or what you do. It doesn’t just come with the territory,” said Daley.

One of the challenges in addressing occupational violence and aggression is its scope, according to Daley: “It takes many forms, occurs in a wide range of settings, and is committed by a diverse set of actors, who have varied motivations. Common challenges for regional, rural, and remote settings in addressing occupational violence and aggression include isolation, the distance of supports and resources, lack of reporting systems and workplace

boundaries, and relationships being blurred if living in an area where everyone knows each other,” she said.

There are a number of steps workplaces, and their leaders can take to address these challenges and issues, Daley added – one of the most important being a commitment to a positive safety culture.

“A positive culture cultivates prevention and response capabilities,” said Daley.

Targeted policies, practices, and strategies are also needed to address these challenges, while specific training also plays a significant role. “Training is most effective when it is delivered relevant to that which could cause you harm. All workplaces have legislative responsibilities with regard to occupational violence and aggression. Non-compliance carries penalties,” said Daley.

“However, OHS should not be seen as just a legal requirement but as an essential part of managing the well-being of all staff. A healthy and safe workplace is good for everyone.” n

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BOOK REVIEW

Book review: A Field Guide to Safety Professional Practice Author: David Provan Publisher: Safety Futures Ltd RRP: US$65.00 ISBN-10: 0645226521 ISBN-13: 978-0645226522

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opyrighted in 2021, this 331-page book by Dr David Provan, MD of Australia-based Forge Works and Safety Futures and co-presenter of The Safety of Work Podcast, was published in May 2022. Its primary audience is active safety professionals for whom it is designed to improve the professionalism, influence, and effectiveness with which they discharge their important roles ‘in the field’, particularly within complex organisations facing uncertainties and risks that can lead to significant adverse safety outcomes. Overall, this goal was achieved admirably based on a combination of technical advice, research, and suggested soft skills.

The book is beautifully formatted, and chapter contents are summarised up-front and explicated with pithy case studies.

‘Your role as a safety professional’ is well presented, with advice on what may get in the way of implementation and several overarching summary tips.

The book has five parts, following an Introduction that outlines key aspects of safety science and the role of safety professionals: 1. Creating Influence, 2. Managing Risk, 3. Managing Work through a Safety Management System, 4. Leading Change, and 5.

Facilitating Learning. Provan (p5) generously acknowledges key colleagues and influences,

noting that Ivica Ninic helped him draft five chapters located within Parts 2 and 3 (pp117-98 & 255-66) that each state upfront that they were ‘authored’

by Ninic: Risk Assessment, Risk Reduction, Control Effectiveness, Management Systems, and Building Strategy.

The book’s other chapters are Building Relationships, Humble Inquiry, Coaching, Difficult Conversations, Risk Psychology, Prescribing Work, Safety Clutter, Safety Assurance, Diagnosing Opportunities, Evaluating Improvement, Understanding Work, Incident Investigation, Learning Teams, and Measuring Safety. Ralph Shreeve is broadly acknowledged in relation to ‘all content’ in Parts 1, 4 and 5 with the influences of others (e.g., Edgar Schein, Sidney Dekker, Erik Hollnagel, Drew Rae) cited in individual chapters.

The scope of A Field Guide to Safety Professional Practice is appropriate and ambitious.

It is said (p7) to cover “the core understanding and capabilities required by a safety professional to be most effective in their role”. As such, I would have liked to see substantive material on the ethics and values of safety professionals, even if only in the Introduction.

Ninic’s chapters demonstrate his strong chemical and reliability engineering and process safety background with Shell, Origin Energy, and consultancies

OHS PROFESSIONA L | SEPTEMBER 2022

regarding critical controls, layers of protection analyses, risk matrices and bowties, and they avoid the superficial treatment sometimes seen in other material. But the chapters might have been more explicit about applicability to other domains such as public service, retail, NFP and other white-collar organisations, and for occupational health as well as safety. It is also important that the discussion on ‘risk reduction due diligence’ not be confused with the broader due diligence provisions for officers in s27 of the model WHS Act.

“Underpinning the book is a deep scholarship in safety science, risk management, and understanding management and learning” Underpinning the book is a deep scholarship in safety science, risk management, and understanding management and learning. Provan’s 20 years as a safety professional shines through. Engaging with the trade-offs that all safety professionals encounter between

production, profit, and safety is explicit and balanced. The best of ‘New View’ material is added to enduring lessons and requirements of ‘Safety I’ workplace and process safety, legislative requirements, and international ISO standards. Among noteworthy material was the emphasis on risk foresight, stakeholder (including worker) consultation such as the risk associated with work as done, agreeing value of a statistical life, and use of ‘nudge theory’.

The version I was provided to review was developed for inhouse teaching and included QR code links to additional material which were very helpful. Even without this, I strongly recommend the purchase of A Field Guide to Safety Professional Practice by a broad range of practising safety professionals as well as undergraduate and graduate students preparing for OHS and process safety roles.

It is the contemporary resource of choice to complement the AIHS OHS Body of Knowledge and can be expected to continue to develop in future editions (which desirably include the QR links). n

Reviewed by: Kym Bills, FAIHS, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide & AIHS Branch Chair SA

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