National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Brisbane, QLD

1. National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Brisbane, QLD • QLD

3. Contents Page and Content 4. History of the National Strategy 5. Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy 6. National Work Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and Development 7. Welcome 8. Workshop Introduction 9. Workshop participants’ profile 10. Session Scopes 11. Session 1: Group discussion on work health and safety (including NT specific remote and regional issues) in the next ten years 13. Session 2: Social/Economic/Emerging issues in the workforce, business and technology 20. Session 3: Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to disease, injury and psychological injury causing hazards 26. Session 4: Work Health & Safety Systems in safe design, skills and training, and safety leadership & organisational culture 32. Closing Remarks 33. Evaluation Comments Disclaimer: The views of participants expressed in this document are not necessarily the views of Safe Work Australia.

4. History of National Strategy The 10 year National Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Improvement Framework (NIF) was in place in the 1990s providing Australia with a nationally coordinated “roadmap” for improving workplace health and safety. The NIF signalled the commitment to OHS improvement in Australia by the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC), the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) and NOHSC members. It set out to improve prevention, share knowledge, foster partnerships and collaborations, and compare performance among the key OHS stakeholders in Australia. The National OHS Strategy (National Strategy) was endorsed in May 2002 with the vision of Australian workplaces free from death, injury and disease. This was a tripartite initiative of NOHSC and unanimously endorsed by Federal, State and Territory Ministers. The 10 year timeframe was chosen to span political terms and provide the time to develop evidence based policies and programs. WRMC noted the successes of the National Road Strategy and its associated targets, and believed the inclusion of targets in a new document would help sharpen the national focus and efforts to improve Australia’s OHS performance. The National Strategy set out the basis for nationally strategic interventions that were intended to foster sustainably safe and healthy work environments, and to reduce significantly the numbers of people hurt or killed at work. Five national priorities and nine areas that required national action were agreed. These collectively aimed to bring about short and long-term improvements in OHS, as well as longer-term cultural change. Reports on progress to achieve the objectives of the National Strategy were provided annually to WRMC. NOHSC provided the original leadership and took carriage of the National Strategy until it was replaced by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council in 2005.

5. Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy In 2009 Safe Work Australia – an independent Australian Government statutory body – was established. It has primary responsibility for improving work health and safety and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia. Safe Work Australia represents a genuine partnership between governments, unions and industry working together towards the goal of reducing death, injury and disease in workplaces. The current and future National Strategy are key documents to guide the work of Safe Work Australia and others to achieve this goal. The current historic commitment to work health and safety is illustrated by the joint funding by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments of Safe Work Australia, facilitated through an intergovernmental agreement signed in July 2008. Safe Work Australia members: Back left to right: Mr Mark Goodsell Australian Industry Group; Mr Brian Bradley Western Australia; Ms Michele Patterson South Australia; Ms Michelle Baxter Commonwealth; Mr Rex Hoy Chief Executive Officer; Mr Peter Tighe Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Front left to right: Ms Anne Bellamy Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mr John Watson New South Wales; Mr Tom Phillips AM Chair; Mr Michael Borowick (ACTU) Absent: Mr Greg Tweedly Victoria; Mr Barry Leahy Queensland; Ms LieslCentenera ACT; Mr Roy Ormerod Tasmania; and Ms Laurene Hull Northern Territory.

6. National Work Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and Development Safe Work Australia is now developing a new National Work Health and Safety Strategy to supersede the previous Strategy that expires in June 2012. To inform the development process, workshops are being held in all capital cities and a number of regional centres. These will seek ideas and comments from invited participants including employers, employees, regulators, work health and safety professionals, academics and interested community members. Safe Work Australia will also continue to consult with key stakeholders through a range of other mechanisms including ongoing bilateral consultations and by commissioning topic papers from experts on selected issues. These consultations will allow Safe Work Australia Members to decide on priority areas, targets and the Strategy’s duration. Once a draft National Work Health and Safety Strategy has been agreed by Safe Work Australia Members this will be released for public comment early in 2012. The comments will be analysed and used to further inform the development of the new Strategy.

7. Welcome to participants Barry Leahy, Deputy Director-General, Department of Justice and Attorney-General, welcomes participants to the Brisbane workshop.

8. Workshop Introduction Dr Peta Miller, Director of National Strategy at Safe Work Australia gave an introduction to the workshop. She noted that the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012 provides a basis for developing sustainable, safe and healthy work environments and for reducing the number of people hurt or killed at work. She noted that the current Strategy set very clear and ambitious goals for work heath and safety, and was a key initiative to improve Australia's work health and safety performance from 2002–12. She thanked participants for attending and indicated that the workshops are an important part of the extensive stakeholder consultation process for the development of the New National Strategy. Dr Miller invited participants to stay engaged and review the development progress reports on the new Strategy on the Safe Work Australia website as they are released. Dr Miller provided data on the progress and limitations of the current Strategy and lessons learnt. She also noted the public comment period for the new Strategy early next year and welcomed participants’ comments at that time. Dr Miller’s presentation slides are available on the Safe Work Australia website. Participant comments on the workshops and new National Strategy themes can be sent to nationalstrategy@safeworkaustralia.gov.au

9. Brisbane Workshop Participants’ Profile

10. Session Scopes To assist participants, all tables displayed scopes outlining what was meant by the key discussion topics. These are noted below: • Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the Workforce, Business and Technology • The Workforce: Changing worker demographics such as ageing, young workers, casualisation, contract work, shift work, and individual needs such as literacy, disability, mental health • Business: How business is changing to meet emerging challenges and to remain viable and competitive, such as outsourcing, subcontracting, casualisation, etc • Technology: Innovations in the workplace that have already or may have a future impact on Work Health and Safety , such as nanotechnology, green technology, innovations in genetics, electronics and IT systems • Hazards – Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to: • Disease-Causing Hazards - includes noise, hazardous substances, chemicals and asbestos • Injury-Causing Hazards - includes work practices, manual tasks, slips trips and falls • Psychological Injury-Causing Hazards - includes the design, management and organisation of work and work systems to achieve resilient productive and safe psychological working environments. • Work Health and Safety Systems – Challenges and Solutions in Safe Design and Work Systems, Skills and Training, and in Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture • Safe Design and Organisational Systems: the systems and principles that facilitate the elimination of hazards at the design or modification stage of products, buildings, structures and work processes • Skills & Training: the skills and training that employers and workers need to deliver safe workplaces. • Safety Leadership and Organisation Culture: Safety leadership generates organisational cultures that view safety and productivity of equal importance, validated by the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values of the workforce

11. Session One: What will success look like in 10 years? • People integrate work health and safety into their life outside of work. • Work health and safety training is not affected by competing priorities. • We have a National Work Health and Safety Marketing Strategy that has changed the national psyche and is responsive to changes in the workforce, business and the community. • People expect and pay for “best practice” work health and safety. • All workplaces are free of death, injuries, illness and disease. • Zero harm is achieved and safety trumps productivity. • There is a continuing and sustained downward trend in occupational injury and disease rates. • All workplaces enhance health and wellbeing outcomes. • We have a society that embraces and contributes to individual wellbeing and to a positive safety culture in and out of the workplace. • We have a National Work Health and Safety Repository that links qualifications, licensing, education and training. • There is increased work attendance and better morale. • All organisations have a reporting culture where it is okay to identify hazards and make a complaint. • Managers model appropriate behaviour, eg. not working long hours. • All organisations evaluate the work health and safety impacts of changes to work prior to implementing them. • Work health and safety is included in all policies. • Work health and safety is integrated into how businesses operate and manage their risks, alongside their consideration of other financial and non-financial risks. • We have one national system and regulator for work health and safety and workers’ compensation. • We have improved reporting, data capture and recording. • There is a greater safety awareness and a better skill-set in the workforce and in business, especially in small and remote businesses. • We have a nationally developed and implemented ageing workforce strategy. • There are improvements in risk mitigation through technology development and safe design. • We have improved positive performance measures. • The community has clear expectations and understands work health and safety. • Safety is a standard part of doing business. • Workers understand their rights to work safely and are empowered to say no to unsafe work. • Work health and safety is integrated into education. • Workplaces engage in proactive consultation on the management of work health and safety risks. • Government uses procurement to influence supply chains.

12. Session One: How will we get there? • Set work health and safety targets that engage small business and that can be actively used by industry, government and business. • Maintain national industry-based work health and safety benchmarking with each industry, also broken down into sub-sectors. • Make work health and safety induction compulsory in all workplaces. • Train supervisors and managers to recognise culture and behavioural issues. • Increase the knowledge around health and wellbeing in primary schools and onwards. • Set benchmarks and targets that address want we want to achieve. • Encourage more mentoring. • Use lead over lag indicators as the preferred method of reporting. • Improve the identification of work health issues. • Focus on the whole of working life beyond the National Strategy’s 10 year period. • Register all organisations that have work health and safety systems and training.

13. Session One: How will we get there? • Introduce additional work health and safety into tertiary education; particularly into medicine, management, and allied health programs. • Publish standard risk assessment guides for industry. • Develop social hazard assessment tools, specifically for psychosocial hazards. • Develop work health and safety links with the National Safe Schools Framework and the National Curriculum. • Start work health and safety education early - in schools then TAFEs. • Develop IT systems to share work health and safety knowledge. • Enforce work health and safety duties of designers. • Strengthen the role of work health and safety in procurement. • Emphasise the links between health, safety and wellbeing. • Ensure that work health and safety is mandatorily included in annual reports. • Assess workers’ general levels of fitness to ensure they can work safely. • Promote the financial benefits of safe and healthy work.

14. Session Two: Emerging Issues in the WorkforceWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • Better work health and safety skills, tools and training are available and provided for line managers. • We have more flexible work hours. • Work improves workers’ wellbeing. • The scope of the National Work Health and Safety Strategy includes the needs of self-employed and precarious workers. • We have a better understanding of the health and safety risks that fly-in and fly-out workers are exposed to.

15. Session Two: Emerging Issues in the Workforce How will we get there? • Implement programs that increase awareness of health and wellbeing. • Build-in travel time for work to ensure better fatigue management. • Fit work to a worker’s capacity. • Develop an evidence base for evaluating interventions.

16. Session Two: Emerging Issues in BusinessWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • People conducting businesses understand how and why they should provide safe work. • Systems for work health and safety, environment and security are integrated. • The workforce is flexible and can expand and contract with the demands of economic pressures without compromising safety. • Government uses procurement to influence the supply chain. • Big organisations work together to provide training.

17. Session Two: Emerging Issues in Business How will we get there? • Offer small business financial incentives, e.g. reduced insurance premiums, to improve safety. • Standardise business systems and processes. • Produce useable and meaningful reference material. • Take a precautionary approach to what we know we don’t know. • Provide better regulatory support for small business. • Educate senior executives on their work health and safety obligations. • Publish standard risk assessment tools for some industries.

18. Session Two: Emerging Issues in TechnologyWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • Business understands the benefits of having up to date technology and systems in place to manage employee and contractor information throughout their working life. • We have real-time data on work health and safety performance. • There is one centralised database in place for national licenses, e.g. white cards for construction. • Regulation is flexible and adapts to keep pace with technological development. • Designing for safety is consistently monitored. • Businesses use technology to link up and avoid isolation.

19. Session Two: Emerging Issues in Technology How will we get there? • Focus on safe design for the life cycle of product. • Ensure that international designers meet Australian work health and safety standards. • Take a holistic approach to identification and control of risk, particularly when improving technologies can introduce new hazards. • Use video to record onsite risk assessments. • Develop guidelines and principles to ensure technology is designed and adapted to meet human needs.

20. Session Three: Disease-causing hazardsWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • An integrated national approach is in place to deal with occupational disease causing hazards. • National research is coordinated and identifies both the known and unknown risks. • There is better use of technology to disseminate information about occupational disease causing hazards. • There is better understanding and the role of the work health and safety professional in disease control and management is recognised and defined. • There is more of a focus on occupational diseases, rather than just on traumatic injuries. • What is counted as an occupational disease is broadened; e.g. weight gain from working long hours, sedentary work, etc., that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

21. Session Three: Disease-causing hazards How will we get there? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • developing a national repository of knowledge for sharing information between researchers, regulators and industry • taking a risk management approach to occupational disease • collecting base-line measures to capture workers’ levels of exposure, particularly for workers who move geographically and/or between industries • assessing the risk of imported substances • developing standardised guidelines for businesses on how to respond to exposures to disease-causing hazards • asking occupational based questions as part of health screening, and • changing the nature of work and task design to make it more conducive to workers leading healthier lifestyles.

22. Session Three: Injury-causing hazards What will success look like in 10 years time? • Work hazard controls are based on medical evidence, support, and research • Zero harm is achieved. • Construction designers (e.g. architects, specifiers, etc.) are held more accountable for the implementation of products and systems and so ensure designs are constructible. • Designers identify and use best practice methods. • Controls are driven by root causes and not by simplistic control measures. • Workplaces will have: • knowledge of their hazards • the capacity to risk assess effectively without overlooking residual risk • a commitment to seeking higher level control solutions • regular reviews of their hazards and controls • an increased focus on high severity hazards, and • impartial discussions to identify solutions in the workplace.

23. Session Three: Responding to Injury-Causing Hazards How do we get there? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • encouraging the reporting of hazards • using medical evidence from outcomes of injury claims to reduce injury-causing risks • providing funding for research and studies to produce better and more timely data on safety of new products • developing a preventative or precautionary approach to injury–causing hazards • encouraging automation to reduce human/plant exposure interface • focussing on the hazards with high risk and disabling/fatal outcomes • considering the environmental and practical consequences of a design • removing the stigma of a “lost time” injury • focussing on lead indicators and using them effectively • measuring the cost-benefit analysis on introduced changes and monitor as part of risk analysis • looking at whole of business risk management, and • finding the points of influence in workplaces.

24. Session Three: Psychological injury-causing hazardsWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • There is better work-life balance and people are not expected to be accessible 24/7. • There is no stigma about psychological issues. • Management have systems in place to deal with psychosocial issues. • Managers have good people skills. • Psychological injury-causing hazards are better defined. • Managers are skilled at recognising the potential for stress, and know how to support workers who are under stress.

25. Session Three: Psychological injury-causing hazardsHow will we get there? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • educating management on psychological injuries • encouraging reporting and feedback so action can be taken to prevent incidents • developing assessment tools • running national educational campaigns • developing codes of conduct in order to prevent stress arising particularly from bullying and harassment • running programs targeted at supervisors and managers • offering free counselling to all workers • supporting more research in this area • managing workers and managers expectations through clear job descriptions and a realistic review processes • providing workers with the right equipment • developing base line data and targets around psychological interventions, including industry specific interventions, and • recruiting managers with good people management skills.

26. Session Four: Safe Design & Work SystemsWhat will success look like in ten years time? • Buildings are designed to be built, maintained, removed, demolished, and used in such a way that workers’ health and safety is ensured. • Designs factor in the potential for human error. • Pressures in the supply chain influences work health and safety positively. • Designers and engineers undergo a process of work health and safety registration.

27. Session Four: Safe Design & Work SystemsHow do we get there? • Develop a star rating for safety, like an energy rating for products. • Develop and maintain an up-to-date anthropometric database to give a better idea of the size and shape of people. • Enforce and regulate the work health and safety duties of designers. • Suppliers assess the work health and safety risks of the products they supply.

28. Session Four: Safety Skills and TrainingWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • Everyone in the community has an active knowledge and understanding of work health and safety. • We have identified a knowledge and skill base for work health and safety professionals. • We have developed accredited tertiary and VET training and registration. • There is industry level work health and safety accreditation, like the construction white card.

29. Session Four: Skills and Training - How will we get there? • Promote a changed mind set where work health and safety is a part of life, rather than a barrier to getting things done. • Include a requirement for employers to demonstrate their work health and safety knowledge as part of their business registration. • Teach work health and safety at all tertiary courses/schools. • Teach managers/supervisors how to manage work health and safety. • Educate people before they enter the workforce. • Encourage employers to support a centralised training and licensing system. • Encourage regular refresher training.

30. Session Four: Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture - What will success look like in 10 years time? • Organisations have a positive safety culture driven from the top down. • Leaders are trained in ethics. • Managers, CEOs and board members take responsibility and are held accountable for their organisation’s work health and safety performance. • There is peer learning between CEOs. • Organisations have a “just” culture – respectful of everyone. • Work health and safety is integrated into all policies. • Work health and safety is considered in all business decisions, the same as productivity. • Chief Safety Officers have the same status and influence as Chief Financial Officers. • Work health and safety is a key performance indicator, is as important as profitability, and is reported in all annual reports, board reports etc. • Work health and safety practices that work are shared and not held as a competitive secret.

31. Session Four: Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture - How do we get there? • Encourage industry to drive and support leadership courses. • Encourage the reporting of work health and safety performance via the balanced score card approach. • Encourage leaders to listen to their workers. • Analyse how leadership works. • Connect leadership to business planning. • Develop lead indicators for business to use as a key performance indicator. • Inform workers how work health and safety contributes to business success and profitability. • Insist on honest reporting while aiming for zero harm. • Encourage ethical investment with a positive safety performance acting as an additional inducement to the market. • Develop guidance on what businesses should measure to develop a safety culture. • Develop leaders with more than technical skills. • Demonstrate that leadership and culture affects the bottom line. • Develop more links between research and industry. • Ensure board members have a broad range of skills and backgrounds.

32. Closing Reflections from Safe Work Australia Peta Miller thanked Barry Leahy, Associate Director-General of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General,for opening the workshop; the facilitator David Caple, and all the workshop participants for their attendance and contribution. She commented that while there were many commonalities discussed at today’s workshop that resonated with findings from the eight National Strategy workshops Safe Work Australia has hosted so far, the Brisbane attendees had generated many new ideas as well. Peta noted that there had been many important observations made over the day, particularly around the issues specific to Northern Australia, such as fly-in and fly-out work and the concerns it raised for both workers and communities. Also climate change and the challenge of managing the risks to workers in the uncontrolled environments that follow natural disasters and other large-scale emergencies. The message that “generational change is coming, watch out” and the challenge of managing the learning patterns of different generations and changing workplace culture came through loud and clear, as did the discussions about risk shifting, both perceived and actual, and how it may affect workers both at work and at home, as well as change businesses’ attitude to work health and safety. Peta was encouraged to hear the mature dialogue around safe design in policy, and mused on the need for an analysis of the work health and safety implications of all socio-economic policies prior to their implementation. Other interesting exchanges focused on how we can counter misinformation on work health and safety, especially with the prevalence of social media, which can offer new avenues for raising awareness but can also fuel misinformation and cynicism about work health and safety. The need to show that work health and safety isn’t “spoiling the fun” whilst still giving accurate information was noted as paramount. Peta was interested in the discussion around the roles that nurses could play in collecting occupational information and connecting it with disease and injury incidents; as well as registering designers and engineers to ensure they meet their work health and safety duties. Peta invited participants to go away from today to become implementation champions of the new National Strategy. While Safe Work Australia’s predecessors didn’t have a rigorous evaluation plan for the first Strategy, that would be remedied in the new one. This will engage all stakeholders, include measures, tools, targets and realistic milestones, and everyone will have a role. Peta reminded participants of the public comment phase of the Strategy development process later in the year; and suggested that some smaller focus groups may be convened to further develop it. She advised participants that they will receive a write-up of today’s workshop outcomes. She thanked participants for their attendance, their generosity with their time and their contributions. Peta closed the workshop by welcoming participants’ ongoing engagement with the development of the new Strategy and said that if they would like to provide further comments and ideas these would be welcome at nationalstrategy@safeworkaustralia.gov.au.

33. Evaluation Outcomes Overall, the feedback was very positive from the National Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012–2022 workshop held in Brisbane on 11 August. Both quantitative and qualitative results were collected from 45 evaluation sheets, which reported 100% satisfaction both for the format of the day and the facilitator. The length of the workshop reported 91% approval. There was 98% satisfaction for the opportunity to contribute and the food as well as the room set-up and the location/venue. The networking and interactions combined with the opportunity to influence the future strategic direction of safety in Australiawere appreciated by many. There was in particular a call from the audience to have more people from outside of industry groups to ensure linkage to harder issues and trends and mediators on each topic to keep group discussion on track. Many participants found theshort presentations by the syndicate spokesperson to be very informative. The opportunity to provide feedback and input at this critical stage of developing the new National Work Health and Safety Strategy was appreciated, and the fact that all input was respectfully received and many times validated by the presenters successfully made for a valuable session looking towards improving health and safety in Australia. Many helpful suggestions were made on how to improve the quality of debate, ranging from the need to have more time for discussion on conflicting issues to the need for CEO roundtables discussions. All of the input has been noted, and is being integrated into future workshops and into planning the new Work Health and Safety Strategy. Text in italics indicates direct quotes from responders