What to expect at SIA Conference 2007

Safety In Action Conference organisers are promising to address innovative workplace safety solutions, investigative techniques and tools for managers across its three-day program.

The conference will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007, and will run alongside the Safety In Action exhibition from 20-22 March.

The event is coordinated and presented by the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), and this year's speakers cover a wide range of workplace safety issues that span a variety of industries.

So, who's speaking and what range of topics is on this year's agenda? Here's a brief run-down on some of the highlights.

Demand for tougher OHS fines

The results of a survey of Australia's occupational health and safety professionals, the SIA Safety Report Card, will be released for the first time at the conference.

The national research was commissioned by the SIA and has called for bigger fines to punish employers who breach workplace safety laws.

Two-thirds of the members surveyed favoured increased fines, with more than one in five giving tougher fines the strongest possible support.

SIA Victoria president, Phil Lovelock said the results reflected the serious consequences of safety breaches. "Taking a person's life or destroying their health is the most terrible thing anyone can do and we should apply the most severe penalties available for those acts - whether they happen at work or anywhere else," he said.

Fines for breaches of OHS laws have been increased in many states. In Victoria, for example, the maximum penalties are now $943,290 for companies and $188,658 for individuals. Despite this, Lovelock says the penalties applied by the courts remain out of step with community expectations.

"Too often we see an extremely low fine imposed after an employer has failed to take the most basic safety precautions and someone's been badly hurt as a result.. There's no excuse for that," he said.

It's people that hurt people, not knives

Melbourne chef and co-owner of Jamie Oliver's high-profile restaurant, Fifteen, Tobie Puttock will take a starring role in this month's conference when he presents the opening breakfast briefing.

He will be sharing his stories about the safety challenges that are encountered day to day in the Fifteen kitchen - most commonly, knife injuries.

He says that while the trainees learn all about knife and kitchen safety at TAFE, it is still necessary for OHS hazards to be drilled into the students throughout their first year of experience in a restaurant.

"Basic things like hygiene and how not to cut yourself, things that seem like common knowledge to us, are not so basic to a teenager who eats a lot of fast food and hasn't really spent much time in a kitchen," Puttock says.

Even tasks that are as simple as walking through the kitchen have their risks, which Puttock says is also tough to explain. "I tell them to be careful walking and they're like, 'Are you serious?' Well, it could slippery; someone could be carrying a pot of hot oil... the kitchen is a very dangerous place."

Interestingly, Puttock's message is that it's people that hurt people, not the knives, stoves, bottle crushers etc. He points to mistakes like a chef leaving a knife under a tea towel or sitting a hot pan straight from the oven on the bench without warning others.

Casualisation trap for Aussie workers

Professor Niki Ellis will argue that industrial relations changes have increased stress levels for casual employees and caused highly skilled and sought-after workers to feel trapped in unhealthy conditions in her 20 March conference address.

"In past decades, research showed that occupational stress was worse for people who have little control over their work," Ellis said. "Industrial relations changes have made this worse, not better.

"Furthermore, people in insecure employment are reluctant to make unsafe working conditions an issue, so will often put up with them. The casualisation of the workforce has had a huge negative impact on occupational health and safety."

Professor Ellis says she is "struck by the attitude of denial" towards workplace stress in Australia, where little recognition is given to psychological workplace hazards, in contrast to the United Kingdom, where the government introduced stress management standards in 2005.

"Australian employer groups have been very effective in blocking any action to address workplace stress and the Australian Safety and Compensation Council has been silent on it. It's extraordinary really," she says.

The vital statistics

More than 60 health and safety experts will present their research or experiences at Safety In Action. The conference and concurrent trade show will run from 20-22 March at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.