Occupational health & safety management systems: proceedings of the first national conference PDF
Preview Occupational health & safety management systems: proceedings of the first national conference
Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems Proceedings of the First National Conference Edited by Warwick Pearse, Clare Gallagher and Liz Bluff Published by Crown Content A.C.N. 096 393 636 A.B.N. 37 096 393 636 75 Flinders Lane Melbourne Vic. 3000 Telephone: (03) 9654 2800 Fax: (03) 9650 5261 Internet: www.crowncontent.com.au Email: [email protected] Copyright © 2001 WorkCover NSW All rights reserved. This publication is copyright and may not be resold or reproduced in any manner (except excerpts thereof for bona fide study purposes in accordance with the Copyright Act) without the prior consent of the Publisher. Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is free from error or omissions. However, the Pub- lisher, the Authors, the Editor, or their respective employees or agents, shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of mate- rial in this book whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty or default on the part of the Publisher, the Authors, the Editor, or their re- spective employees or agents. The First National Conference on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, July 2000 was part of the Club Zero project funded under the WorkCover New South Wales Injury Prevention, Education and Research Grants Scheme and supported by the University of Western Sydney. The con- clusions and views expressed in the conference papers are not necessarily those of WorkCover NSW or the University of Western Sydney. The National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Occupational health & safety management systems : proceedings of the first national conference. ISBN 1 86350 374 9 1. Industrial hygiene - Australia - Management - Congresses. 2. Industrial safety - Australia - Management - Congress. I. Pearse, Warwick. II. Gallagher, Clare. III. Bluff, Liz. 658.382 Cover & Page Design: Ben Graham Printed in Australia by Cleveland Printing Contents Introduction v Part One - Refereed Papers 1 Safety Management and Safety Culture The Long, Hard and Winding Road 3 Patrick Hudson Expect the Worst, Achieve the Best 33 Dennis Else and Philip Beaumont Lessons from Esso’s Gas Plant Explosion at Longford 41 Andrew Hopkins An ACTU Perspective On OHSMS 53 Bill Mansfield New Directions : Innovative Management Plus Safe Place 65 Clare Gallagher Club Zero: Implementing OHS Management Systems In Small To Medium Fabricated Metal Product Companies 83 Warwick Pearse Producing Risks : Creating Safety - How is Product Safety Addressed in Management Systems? 101 Liz Bluff Accurate Assessment of OHSMS Performance: Impact of Auditor Skills 123 Jenny Barron OHSMS Performance Measures That Add Up 131 Bryan Bottomley Seeing the Wood from the Trees: A systems approach to OH&S management 151 David Borys Organisational Behaviour and Adoption of OH&S Management Systems: Preliminary Findings 173 Neale Jackson and Diane Mead Niblo iv - OHSMS Proceedings of the First National Conference Part Two - OHSMS in Australian Industry 187 (non-refereed presentations) OHS Management Systems in the Meat Industry 189 Janice Quarrie and Margie Mahon A Small Business Perspective 203 Jamie Clapham Implementing OHSMS in the Health Care Industry 207 Ray Cooke Building Your Own OH&S Management System – Workcover’s D-I-Y Kit 213 Michael Costello and Peter Merrett Introducing OHS Management Systems – A Great Leap Forward or Just the Latest Fad? 235 Maggie Goldie The Role of Auditing in Measuring System Effectiveness 241 John Curran and Heather Mahon Is Your Company Too Small To Have A Formal OH&S Management System Program? 253 John Wisby OH&S Management System Self-assessment Case Study 257 Bruce Towill Achieving a Safety Culture Transition 263 Clive Blunt Introduction The papers in this book were presented at the First National Conference on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) held in Australia, at the University of Western Sydney in July 2000. The Conference shared informa- tion about a range of issues associated with the widespread use of OHSMS in many sectors of Australian industry. The Conference was part of the Club Zero project funded by the WorkCover NSW Injury Prevention Education and Research Grant Scheme. The papers represent a cross section of views and experience from an academic and occupational health and safety (OHS) practitioner perspective. The papers are divided into two parts in the publication. The first part consists of papers which were peer reviewed by an international panel and represent those papers which have a more academic or theoretical focus. The second part consists of papers which describe different approaches to OHSMS in Australian industry. To date the uptake of OHSMS has been slower in Australia than in many other countries. However, there is now a momentum which will ensure that in the future many more companies will embrace OHSMS. The drivers for this increase include the leading role played by some regulatory agencies and the tools they have developed like SafetyMap in Victoria, the NSW Government, Construction Policy Steering Committee Guidelines in NSW and the Safety Achiever Bonus Scheme in South Australia. In addition to locally generated activity, international trends have flowed through to Australian branches of multinational companies. The predicted increase in OHSMS has generated a number of questions about whether OHSMS contribute to improvements in workplace safety and how these improvements can be secured. The following papers canvass a range of issues about OHSMS which arise from the adoption of OHSMS. How do we know whether an OHSMS is an effective way of improving OHS? What types of systems and arrangements are effective? How do we measure improvements in occupational health and safety? Do current performance measures really tell us what we want to know? How can we move vi - OHSMS Proceedings of the First National Conference beyond paper compliance and develop cultural change in organisations to support an OHSMS? Can auditors help in improving OHSMS? This book sets up a number of questions but the answers will take longer to find. One conclusion from the work presented here is that much more research is needed to answer a range of complex questions associated with OHSMS. Too often governments and companies embark enthusiastically on programs designed to improve OHS without setting up frameworks for evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs. A number of authors at the Conference presented papers which grappled with the difficulties of conducting research about OHSMS in the field. If OHS is to be truly multi-disciplinary then research approaches have to be devel- oped which can tell us about what measures are effective in the “real world” of companies and production systems. It is clear that an OHSMS will not make a difference unless it reflects an overall positive approach to management by the principals of a company. For example, it is difficult to believe that it would be possible to have an effective OHSMS and a poor approach to industrial relations or an indifferent approach to managing quality. An OHSMS is only part of the company or organisation’s management system. However, an OHSMS can provide guidance and challenges for a receptive management. For example, the issues of design, planning and purchasing come into focus with an OHSMS in ways which they may not have done before. OHSMS are not a panacea but they would seem to be a necessary part of any effective management system. In presenting a cross-section of research and prac- tical experience, this book hopes to stimulate debate and challenge readers to further explore and clarify the character and contribution of OHSMS. Warwick Pearse, Clare Gallagher and Liz Bluff Editors Acknowledgments The editors would like to thank the following people who freely contributed their time to provide peer review comments on the papers. Warwick Pearse convened the First National Conference on OHSMS as part of the Dr Kaj Frick Dr Claire Mayhew National Institute for Working Life Australian Institute of Criminology S 112 79 Stockholm GPO Box 2944 Sweden Canberra Australia Professor Patrick Hudson Centre for Safety Research Dr Maria Quartararo Faculty of Social Sciences School of Applied Social PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden and Human Sciences The Netherlands Campbelltown Campus University of Western Sydney Dr Per Langaa Jensen Australia Department of Technology and Social Sciences Dr William Verschuug Technical University of Denmark Centre for Safety Research Building 303, DTU Faculty of Social Sciences DK-2800 PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden Denmark The Netherlands Professor Tord Kjellstrom Faculty of Medicine and Health Science The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland New Zealand Club Zero project which was conducted from the School of Applied Social and Human Sciences, University of Western Sydney (UWS). Thanks for supporting the project go to Dr Betty Gill (UWS), Mr John Colless (UWS), Trish Mace (Australian Industry Group), Doug Rolland (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union), Ron Keelty (NSW WorkCover), Prof. John McCallum (UWS) and Prof. Peter Botsman (UWS). viii - OHSMS Proceedings of the First National Conference Part One Refereed Papers 2 - OHSMS Proceedings of the First National Conference
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