OHS PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS TO DEVELOP NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL REGISTER
At a meeting on the 14th of November 2005, COSHAP agreed to develop and maintain a register of qualified and experienced professionals, and support it with guidance material. The register would include suitably qualified personnel from all the COSHAP member organisations. This initiative would assist Australian business and government by streamlining access to health and safety expertise. But equally importantly it will give the occupational health and safety associations and the ASCC the ability to work actively together to attain their common goal, the protection and enhancement of worker health and safety in Australia.
Also at the meeting, it was decided to work with ASCC in the development of a blueprint for OHS professional workforce development in Australia.
OHS PROFESSIONAL AWARDED QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY HONOUR
It is very pleasing to note that
Dr Brian Davies, an OHS professional and AIOH Fellow, was awarded an AM - Member
of the Order of Australia - in the Queen's Birthday Honours list on Monday 13th
June. Brian received the award for "service to occupational health and
hygiene, particularly in relation to the coal industry, and through the
Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists."
MEETING WITH THE MINISTER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR WORKPLACE RELATIONS
Representatives of COSHAP met with
the Minister for Workplace Relation, Kevin Andrews, on Wednesday, 23rd of June
2004, and tabled the following recommendations:
COSHAP
recommends
to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations that:
1.
The
Australian Safety and Compensation Council should be established without delay.
2.
COSHAP
should be formally represented on the ASCC.
Representation of Occupational Health and Safety Professionals on the Council is essential. Scientific and technical expertise is vital to:
Setting
priorities
Evaluation of effectiveness
Interpretation of scientific and technical information
Dispute resolution
In addition, formal representation will ensure that the ASCC has:
Greater
acceptance by OHS professionals
Improved communication of information
Improved access to professional advice and expertise
3.
An
office of the ASCC should include well resourced scientific and technical
expertise.
Scientific and technical support for the ASCC is required to ensure:
Critical
scientific review and evaluation of proposals
The best available scientific and professional opinion is available to support
initiatives
Provision of strategic advice, especially with regard to emerging issues
Support of Occupational Health and Safety organisations and professionals
throughout Australia
4.
There
should be adequate provision for research funds via established research bodies.
OHS research in Australia is currently fragmented and poorly supported, given the scale of the problem. Administration of research funds by NOHSC and State Worker’s Compensation and OHS bodies has resulted in loss of valuable funds. Administering bodies have not been set up to evaluate research proposals. Information collected is currently under-analysed and not available to inform public policy.
There
should be a minimum provision of $5M p.a., with a preferred allocation of $10M
towards competitive funding of OHS research, outside of the current NOHSC
budget. It is recommended that a significant contribution come from the States
and Territories, in order to engender ownership.
·
There should
be a minimum provision of $5M p.a., with a preferred allocation of $10M towards
competitive funding of OHS research, outside of the current NOHSC budget. It is
recommended that a significant contribution come from the States and
Territories, in order to engender ownership.
·
One half
should be allocated for Capacity Building Grants and one half for specified
projects or research addressing areas highlighted in the National OHS Strategy
and focussing on the prevention of illness and injury.
·
The ASCC
should indicate priority areas for research, but not administer or allocate the
funds.
·
Research
funds for occupational health and safety should be administered through proven
mechanisms such as the NH&MRC and/or ARC.
·
Such funds
should be ear-marked for occupational health and safety research and unavailable
for other projects.
·
Some
priority should be given to the analysis and use of already collected data to
direct improvements in prevention, diagnosis and management of workplace injury
and disease.
A
similar meeting was held with the Shadow Minister, Craig Emerson, on the 24th of
June, with the same recommendations.
ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE
At a meeting of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission on the 16th of October, 2002, it was resolved that NOHSC would recommend to the Workplace Relations Ministers Council that exposure to ETS be excluded in all Australian workplaces, and that this exclusion be implemented as soon as possible.
Recent Australian research has quantified occupational ETS exposures in hospitality venues in NSW and SA, and demonstrated that ventilation systems are only partially effective in reducing exposure. Residual estimated lifetime cancer and cardiovascular disease risks are in the range requiring regulatory action.
As the occupational health risks far outweigh public health risks, our view is that the WRMC should actively work with Health ministers to accelerate legislative reform in this area, and not just simply monitor progress.
15 November 2002
MEETING WITH MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS
PROFESSIONALS IN PARTNERSHIP
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The
Australian federal and state/territory governments launched the National
Occupational Health and Safety Strategy in May 2002.
As
part of the Strategy, a series of targets were set:
COSHAP,
comprising the five OHS professional associations, endorses the National
Strategy. Individual OHS professional associations will work in partnership to
assist employers, employees and government meet the objectives.
OHS professionals will be key contributors in
the following Action Areas of the Strategy -
The
OHS professional associations are well placed to assist in, and be key
contributors to, achievement of the targets – their many thousands of members,
and those influenced by them, work in every part of Australian industry,
commerce and government. They are part of a wide international network, seeking
to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of workers, and the communities in
which they live.
In
seeking to progress the Strategy, occupational health nurses, physicians,
hygienists, ergonomists and safety practitioners will mutually recognise their
expertise and work together to provide the best possible professional service to
workers, management and government.
COSHAP
encourages a rigorous scientific approach, and takes a holistic view of OHS,
recognising the inter-relationships between individual worker characteristics,
work and work organisation, working environment, public health and the ambient
environment. OHS professionals recognise the importance of eliminating hazards
at the design stage, and the need to integrate OHS in the education of
engineers, architects and designers. They also recognise that they are part of
the management system and that high quality advice will lead to both OHS and
economic benefits.
OHS RESEARCH
OHS research in Australia is in crisis, as may be judged by the very limited success in NHMRC and ARC grant rounds. However, COSHAP recognises that some progress is being made. e.g. the National Centre for OHS Regulation and the Collaborative Centre in Occupational Contact Dermatitis.
There is a need to rebuild capacity and to fund scholarships and longer term
investigator-driven research, as part of a National OHS Strategy.
COSHAP supports the recommendations made by Professor Michael Quinlan in a paper published in the Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand 2000 16(3):213-227.
Click here to download the paper in Microsoft Word format.