National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Perth, Western Australia

1. WA • National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Perth, Western Australia

3. Contents Page and Content 4. History of 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 in the next ten years 14. Session 2: Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the workforce, business and technology 20. Session 3: Work Health & Safety Systems in safe design, supply chain, safety leadership & organisational culture 26. Session 4: Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to disease, injury and psychological injury causing hazards 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. The Workplace Relations Ministers’ 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 mid 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 • Mr Brian Bradley, Director General of the Department of Commerce WA, welcomes participants to the Perth workshop.

8. Workshop Introduction Mr Rex Hoy, the Chief Executive Officer of Safe Work Australia gave an introduction to the workshop. He 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. He 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. He 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. Mr Hoy 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. Mr Hoy provided data on the progress and limitations of the current Strategy and lessons learnt. He also noted the public comment period for the new Strategy early next year and welcomed participants’ comments at that time. Mr Hoy’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. Perth 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 • Work Health and Safety Systems – Challenges and Solutions in Safe Design and Work Systems, the Supply Chain, and in Safety Leadership and Organisational Systems • 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 • Supply Chain: the tools or processes that influence the best safety outcomes within the supply chain that moves a product or a service from the supplier to the customer • 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 • 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.

11. Session One: What will success look like in ten years? • Zero fatalities, and reduction in injuries and diseases, facilitated by targets and in part to be achieved by the following activities suggested by participants: • having more mandatory Health and Safety Representatives, properly trained and protected when they raise issues • Mandatory inductions and annual refreshers across all industries • High quality professional work health and safety qualifications that are nationally accredited, recognised, actively involved in industry and regularly refreshed, and • More people are healthy because they go to work, safe work is seen as an opportunity to enhance health, and invested in as a prevention to ill health. • Focus is on lead indicators, while recognising that lag indicators are still useful. • Data is reliable, nationally consistent and comparable, leading to effective and efficient data analysis, data linkages, focused research and evidence based policy development. • Better understanding and emphasis on occupational diseases (statistics based on workers’ compensation do not reflect true occupational disease picture). • More of a focus on respiratory hazards, with more health outcomes data, better links with cancer registry and disability groups, and more of a focus on silica (as the “new asbestos”).

12. Session One: What will success look like in 10 yrs? • A convergence of values between work health and safety, public health and community safety. • More national approaches across government and jurisdictions - shared approaches to priority issues and industries. • Demographic mix is taken into account (age, ethnicity etc) and realistic and practical solutions are in place that don’t rely on process or create “paper mountains”. • More consultation and involvement of workers in work health and safety issues, with respect and responsibility a core value that heals the disconnect between workers, professionals and management. • Safety is as important as profit, and has moved from being a satellite to being part of business, with key performance indicators inclusive of hidden costs. • SME sector is aware, informed and educated. • Consistently enforced known standards allow regulators to focus on non-employee groups, sole traders and contractors. • Government shows leadership in work health and safety and renews the focus on long term conditions and on safe design. • Design refocus on the people involved in the system rather than workplaces.

13. Session One: What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Change its name to Healthy Work Australia, highlight the positive aspects of work, and put the health back into safety. • Penetrate, influence and integrate into the education system. • Continue to provide better national data, information and to fund and commission research (rather than WA), all of which are to be made accessible to industry. • Continue to act in a coordinating role between regulators. • Continue to set policy at national level in tripartite environment. • Continue to assess international work health and safety perspectives such as best practice, benchmarking, and bring findings to attention of the regulators. • Capture data that already exists as it relates to occupational exposures. • Link into Census data, self-report data, work satisfaction. • Focus on fatalities and drive them down further. • Engage with industry, instigate industry focussed strategies, build capability in business and foster business enabling work health and safety drivers, not just penalty approach. • Research the link between positive safety outcomes and business success – communicate and promote it, but balance it with consequences for poor performance. • Facilitate legislation for protection of casual workers. • Bring agriculture, fishing and forestry into line with other sectors. • Continue to provide guidance and practical information, and update and simplify codes and guidelines so industry can access them in easily digestible ways, and information is “friendly” to XYZ generations. • Focus on developing better processes to identify emerging issues – data is old. • Raise profile and communicate and promote what Safe Work Australia is already doing with industry. • Improve implementation processes – learn lessons of previous strategies.

14. Session Two: Emerging Issues in the WorkforceWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • A focus on literacy and screening at recruitment ensures that cultural perspectives are understood, and safety instructions are pictorial; and casuals, guest workers, contractors, migrants and those on 457 visas are as protected as other workers. • Individuals accept responsibility for their own and others’ safety, founded on education started early at home then in both primary and secondary school that continues in the community and creates a seamless safety culture. • Pervasive safety culture with all involved, creating a cultural shift where there is a whole of Australia community expectation that safe work is the norm, much like the ban on smoking in workplaces and sun protection at school. • Workplace educative processes focus on new and young workers being competent to do their jobs. • There is a common understanding of risk, and the different work ethics of the changing demographics (ageing, gen Y) are accounted for and built into work health and safety strategies, ensuring flexibility in safe work practices, the skills and knowledge of older workers are not lost, and both younger and older workers are trained in new technologies. • Work health and safety strategies are targeted to face the challenges of the need for transferrable safety knowledge with the following workforce changes identified by participants: • Transient employment, less job loyalty • Multicultural and multilingual workers with differing safety cultures • Fatigue associated with multiple jobs • Fly in/Fly out workers – travel times and demands, and • Reaching the rural and remote areas. • Safety is a cooperative process with a shared goal, and consistent messages are portrayed across workplaces and in the community. • Work is adapted to keep workers physically and psychologically healthy for both individual and industry benefits, providing a counter-balance to workers staying in workforce longer leading to potentially higher rates of degenerative disease, and higher extent of impact of occupational disease. • Incentives are in place to retain older skilled workers. • Strong and proactive regulator input provides additional resources to support industry reach their work health and safety goals. • There is better alignment between work health and safety and other areas of legislation eg equal opportunity legislation can conflict with pre-employment medicals and compensation laws. • A Code of Practice for shift workers is in place, regulating the maximum number of hours and dealing particularly with fatigue.

15. Session Two: Emerging Issues in the Workforce What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Be proactive, not reactive, show leadership. • Educate other government departments on cost shifting. • Establish effective communication networks with key agencies, eg unions, relevant government departments, industry champions to collaboratively drive work health and safety change. • Ensure that conditions of visa or card carrying guest workers, migrants and those on 457 visas include risk assessment requirements, and employers of these people face conditions to comply. • Do research and disseminate concise and relevant information, guidance, educational materials, tools and advice that is relevant to size, capability and understanding of organisation or person, and supports employers to discharge their duties. • Maintain important international connections to avoid reinventing the wheel. • Lobby big companies and industry for additional funding. • Be across and respond to emerging issues. • Lobby universities to include work health and safety components in tertiary training courses. • Embrace health in a proactive way, eg mental health first aid. • Create incentives for retention at work. • Educate and skill up Human Resources and workplace relations personnel regarding mental illness. • Make stress and bullying a priority area. • Address chronic diseases and lifestyle factors among the ageing workforce as key emerging issues. • Measure impact of injury and illnesses in a social way. • Provide financial incentives for struggling businesses to maintain high level of safety egSMEs.

16. Session Two: Emerging Issues in BusinessWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • Work health and safety management systems are integrated into the workplace. • Safety is thought of as a core function for business. • Offshore operations are as safe as those in Australia. • A rigorous business case for work health and safety is established that is statistically proven and supported. • People are job ready. • Drivers for safety are in place that do not over-regulate, as you can’t regulate common sense. • Alternatives to legislation reduce the burden of compliance on business, and only engage with compliance scenarios when a problem is identified.

17. Session Two: Emerging Issues in Business What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this? • Actively promote that safety is cooperative and a shared goal. • Be across emerging issues. • Work with larger industry and be aware of their needs. • Advise and promote successful ways of achieving injury reductions. • Define what Safe Work Australia can and cannot do to clarify role. • Be more responsive when business is struggling with extensive and prescriptive legal requirements.

18. Session Two: Emerging Issues in TechnologyWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • There is a recognition that new technologies present both work health and safety risks and benefits and opportunities for improvements. • Work health and safety does not restrict the introduction of new technologies, but understands and deals with any emerging risks of new technologies. • The lifecycle issues and risks of technologies as they go through the supply chain are considered and addressed. • Information is freely available on controls and how to manage risks. • With the growth of computer based jobs (eg, mining increasingly IT-based) measures are actively in place and provisions are made to keep sedentary workers job-ready for occasional manual tasks. • Maintenance skills are retained in increasingly computer based workplaces. • Teleconferencing and other communications and IT advancements ensure that quality of communication of work health and safety messages and problem solving remains high. • SMEs are targeted with information that is meaningful to them. • There is excellent use of research capacity to solve industry problems. • Virtual training for driving trucks or using guns is modified to allow humans to perform as though in a real environment including the smell of cordite and live rounds. • Technicians that multitask and have strategies built in to ensure the potential hazard is under control. • Engineers are trained in safe design and the use of technology in design.

19. Session Two: Emerging Issues in Technology What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Provide educational materials and support tools. • Stay across international developments and the use of international information on new technologies. • Research and communicate ways to retain valued older staff. • Commission research on the newly emerging use of remote control trucks. • Ensure that despite government focus on the increasing use of green technology to reduce carbon footprints, the work health and safety message remains consistent and is heard. • Facilitate the sharing and transference of knowledge of new technologies from mining to the rest of industry. • Ensure that the need for training and skills about human factors is not overlooked when dealing with new technologies. • Assess the impact of mobile technologies for the whole of their life cycle; they need constant assessment for safe use at work. • Stay on top of research, and disseminate findings.

20. Session Three: Safe Design & Work SystemsWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • The Safety in Design package for engineering and architecture students is implemented and is used in the classroom and the field. • Graduate engineers, geologists and designers in the resources sector are trained in safety (for more than the current 30 minutes per degree) to fully equip them for the accountability role they are expected to fulfil. • Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) supplies fully compliant equipment, and purchasers do not have to spend additional capital to make equipment safe. • There is an emphasis on safety and design throughout the whole of the lifecycle of the piece of plant, equipment or system – from conception to preliminary design, to the engineering and detailed design stage, to disposal, including the safety of the end user. • Time is taken and there is proper emphasis on checking for the safety of the design as well as compliance with legislation at patent evaluation, procurement, and during introduction and transition into the workplace. • Designers have legal obligations and they comply with them. • Customers have a positive influence on designers to ensure safety is integrated (eg Woodside). • Safe Design includes the inherent human factors issues. • Technology is tested and approved and government, and regulators are advised by persons with industry based experience and expertise. • The science of ergonomics includes aspects of safe design. • Where information technology is used in blue collar workplaces (including multi-tasking and autonomous trucks) it is well evaluated. • There is a clear and safe approval process for importing overseas products – the duty of care is understood and implemented by importers and products or equipment designed overseas do not enter Australia if they are not fit for purpose. • There is no disconnect between functionality, product safety and work health and safety, with work health and safety professional input and assessment at the design stage, including assessing the maintenance capability and reliability of the design. • There is more linkage between building regulations and codes and work health and safety.

21. Session Three: Safe Design & Work Systems What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Coordinate and collaborate with research and knowledge of the work health and safety implications of new products (eg the unintended consequences of extended periods of sitting and sedentary activity). • Assess the impact of mobile technology over the whole of the life cycle. • Assess the use of virtual reality for training. • Provide guidance, advice and information on the procurement of goods. • Be involved and support Standards Australia in their standards-making process. • Provide education material and design checklists for design professionals. • Provide guidance on change management. • Emphasise the importance of human factors in design. • Disseminate information to duty holders. • Coordinate how information is distributed to industry and professional networks.

22. Session Three: Supply ChainWhat will success look like in 10 years time? • The supply chain is safe, and everyone in it is aware of and acts on their safety responsibilities. • Minnows are helped by large companies to comply with higher safety standards rather than just have them imposed on them, and a minimum safety standard applies to all. • Australia does not condone poor safety standards by using cheaper options sourced from overseas. • There is a clear chain of responsibility outlining due diligence and who is responsible for what, with evident consultation and communication. • Safety coaches are available for participants in the supply chain. • The road transport fatalities in the supply chain are reduced to zero (currently transport and storage data is understated with WA research finding 30-40% of road traffic accidents are work related at a cost of $1 billion per annum in WA). • Sophisticated risk assessment and driver education is applied in the transport part of the supply chain, including considering risk to the public, fatigue, heat, mosquito born diseases and load restraints. • The burden of meeting prescriptive regulations is eased by self regulation. • Regulators are seen as advisors and supporters rather than penalisers. • The fine line between rewards versus punishment is well balanced and understood and supported by participants in the supply chain. • Supply chain operators budget for innovation rather than for injuries or fatalities. • Product that is imported into the supply chain meets AS/NZS 4801:2001. • Systems of preferred suppliers (those who meet relevant standards) are in place. • The community understands the difficulty of stopping a loaded truck, and motorists do not cut in front of trucks.

23. Session Three: Supply ChainWhat should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Conduct research to validate the attribution of 30-40% of road traffic accidents as work related applies across Australia. • Apply EU technology to Australia, and assess ISO, UK and US for examples of good practice. • Apply leverage to lift standards of offshore suppliers. • Provide guidance on type of risk assessment needed for SMEs right through to major hazard facilities. • Recognise and ensure that employers and the community understand that vehicles are workplaces.

24. Session Three: Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture. What will success look like? • There is a common understanding, ownership and acceptance of what culture and leadership means in work health and safety context at all levels. • Safety culture is driven from the top down and leadership occurs at all levels, is supported by personal performance indicators, and there is no fear of reprisals. • There is alignment between messages and action. Safety is properly resourced and embedded in how business is done. • The links between positive safety and productivity gains are well understood, as are the hidden costs of unsafe and unhealthy work and its impact on survivors. • Disconnects of alignment between messages and action in the workplace are identified, and there is broad understanding of the social and economic impact of work related injuries in the community. • Transient workforces and contractors are also well served with leadership, including and incorporating fly in/fly out work, 457 visas, language and culture issues, lack of resources with skill shortages, attempts to transfer risks, questionable efficiencies in monitoring and drawing workers away from retail. • Safety leadership is seen as part of doing business, and safety professionals are seen as advisors, not drivers. • There is only one way – the safe way. • Exemplars in safety leadership are identified. • Mentoring takes place for company directors and directors are supported in their roles. • Leaders know “how to” as well as “what”, and workers are valued as the best assets of the workplace. • Managers hold work health and safety qualifications. • There is separation of educative functions of regulators as opposed to enforcement functions. • Workplaces aim to be better than the benchmark for their industry. • A culture shift will have occurred to ensure that across Australia we know what to do and how to lead in safety.

25. Session Three: Safety Leadership & Organisational Culture ̶ What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? • Provide guidance for the level of response required to meet obligations. • Demystify safety management and clarify what a safety management system actually is. • Advocate to include a module on safety in the Australian Institute of Company Directors Emerging Director Program. • Support and educate safety professionals to assist them to be in a position to influence directors. • Support industry safety leaders and provide them with resources so they can build their profile, then penetrate industry with safety messages. • Facilitate the development of the Corporate Social Responsibility Standard into a Code of Practice or legislation.

26. Session Four: Responding to Disease-Causing Hazards What will success look like in 10 years time? • The current over reliance on PPE is reduced and the hierarchy of controls is reversed with eliminations, substitution and engineering seen as preferred controls. • Stretching, standing at desks, intentional breaks and regular activity offset the potential for sedentary work leading to preventable health problems. • Long latency illnesses are detected early, with continual surveillance for the hazards that still cause problems – stress, work style issues, respiratory disease, noise induced hearing loss and vibration related diseases. • The limitations of workers’ compensation data being able to account for long-latency illnesses are fully understood, and alternative data sets are used. • Early intervention is facilitated by the use of lead indicators for long latency diseases such as asbestosis, particularly in mining (lower-grade ores containing asbestos), construction and demolition. • Long latency hazards get as much attention as immediate hazards. • Management deal with health as well as they do with safety. • Australia has best practice responses to disease causing hazards that are consistent with international standards. • A worker identification surveillance system is in place, that tracks workers through workplaces and exposures.

27. Session Four: Responding to Disease-Causing Hazards What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • Developing practical guidelines on designing out hazards, exposure standards, extended work shifts and patterns, mixed exposures, climate change, heat stress, mosquito-borne and other bio-hazards and diseases. • Monitoring nanotechnology (and emerging issues inherent in sunscreen made with nanomaterials), mobile phones, dermatitis and other skin diseases from penetration of chemicals and UV exposure. • Helping industry to understand the synergistic effects of disease-causing hazards. • Ensuring that Australian Standards are equivalent to international standards. • Gathering data, researching harmonised standards across country. • Leading and advocating to reduce noise which is still a major hazard. • Lobbying government to ensure that imported products don’t contain hazards.

28. Session Four: Responding to Injury-Causing Hazards What will success look like in 10 years time? • Jurisdictions embrace research findings about the benefits of upright postures and automation of systems and change their policies accordingly. • Positive peer pressure has led to a cultural shift from “we have always done it this way” to “we do it safely”. • Hazard identification processes are standardised based on training on how to perform simple job safety analyses (JSAs) and safe work management systems which are made freely available via the newly harmonised regulations. • Benchmarking and assessment tools are in place that are sophisticated enough to meet the challenges of the ageing workforce, cultural differences, transient workers and workers with pre-existing conditions. • Manual tasks are improved as a result of broader awareness of the ergonomic impact of repetitive work, noise and environmental issues. • Workplaces are prepared for hazards as they emerge (eg nanotechnology). • There are less injuries. • Safe design has removed manual handling altogether. • Standardisation of forms allows data tracking to effectively identify trends.

29. Session Four: Responding to Injury-Causing Hazards What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • focussing on targeting manual handling via research, identifying causal factors and holistic ergonomic solutions (physical and mental health), and providing incentives for rewarding solutions via awards processes • conducting surveillance for new hazards and informing stakeholders via alerts and multiple levels of communications • standardising processes for data collection • creating standardised processes for JSAs and encouraging their use; reducing fines in cases where JSAs have been used, and • influencing governments to push suppliers to be globally aware and ISO compliant, creating a level playing field. • Encouraging harmonisation between workplace relations and work health and safety requirements, eg award conditions require higher rates of pay when people to work at night, but in hot climates this can be better for work health and safety. Disincentive for employers to implement this positive work health and safety strategy as night work increases costs.

30. Session Four: Responding to Psychological Injury- Causing Hazards ̶ What will success look like in 10 years time? • Psychological injuries are normalised, validated, and accepted and community acceptance means they are de-stigmatised. • Definitions of work and non-work-related issues are clarified. • Preventative management ensures that hazards that occur upstream do not lead to psych injury, and are recognised, talked about, and bosses listen. • Non-draconian approach to issues, there is better awareness of hazards and triggers and better dissemination of knowledge about causes and consequences. • Workplaces are happy and more productive, efficient, fewer injuries of all types. • Work processes are not boring, people are empowered to come up with their own best solutions in consultation with management that gives individuals control over their work routines, design, layout, timetabling, and scheduling. • Workplaces are caring, with more effective communication creating an environment of respect, responsibility and trust, ensuring that micro stresses for vulnerable workers do not build to tipping points, or for example driver fatigue to stress to road rage (eg chocolate rather than drugs to manage stress). • Both the community and the workplace provide education and support. • Boundaries between Gen Y and older generations defined and broken down. • Balance between work and lifestyle-related-pressures (eg extended use of technology isolating workers, fly in/fly out, extended night shifts). • Workplaces take responsibility for providing psychological preparedness. • EAP programs are community-wide and help with home issues as well as work. • Bullying is defined and recognised as at times poor management and poor communication, but it is also clear that feedback is not necessarily bullying depending on how feedback is given (different generations have different expectations re feedback).

31. Session Four: Responding to Psychological Injury-Causing HazardsWhat should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this? Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by: • making workplace stress and bullying a priority area over the next 5-10 years • ensuring that regulators ask to see an organisation’s mental health plan, and provide guidance and templates on how to develop one • instigating dialogue and championing alignment, consistency and skills development between human resources, workplace relations, Fair Work Australia and work health and safety, as well as with industry groups • building networks and linkages with isolated workers (farmers, miners) and advising on work routine issues, work design, eg truck routes for drivers that are achievable • developing kits for small and micro businesses • influencing governments to provide guidelines, education, research • educating managers and supervisors to deliver feedback well • influencing an alignment between work health and safety and workers’ compensation, incentives for return to work after psychological injury • providing employers and managers with resources to understand, recognise and measure/manage psychological hazards, and • conducting research into the real cost of psychological injuries.

32. Closing Reflections from the Chief Executive Officer Rex Hoy thanked Brian Bradley, Director General of the Department of Commerce WA, for opening the workshop; the facilitator Rick Hodgson, and all the workshop participants for their attendance and contribution. He commented that there were many common strategic themes (the educative process, age, disability and mental health) that have been raised in the workshops so far. He agreed that, as was also raised in the Sydney workshop, the current vision of Australian workplaces free from death, injury and disease could be better worded, as it could be incorrectly taken to mean that Australian workplaces don’t want injured workers and those with diseases back in the workforce. He noted that the Perth participants had placed a particular focus on educating new and younger workers, and on leadership and the importance of an organisation’s culture in promoting safety. Additionally, that while work should be safe, as well as good for us, we need to know how to measure and quantify what we mean by that. Comments that struck a particular chord with him were the need to mentor company directors and advocate for a course on safety in the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ emerging directors program, and the suggestion of the need to focus on mental illness, stress, and bullying, and to work on both workplace and community acceptance of their importance. Rex appreciated the many useful suggestions about the role of Safe Work Australia, particularly in providing information, guidance, practical information, exposure standards, education, promotion and in raising our profile. He noted with interest the suggestion that Safe Work Australia should change its name to Healthy Work Australia, but also pointed out that the name is in legislation so that is a difficult option. Safe Work Australia’s role includes a number of aspects additional to health, including workers’ compensation. He noted that the suggestion that Safe Work Australia should lobby business and industry to solicit funding was regrettably not possible, as Safe Work Australia’s role as a public authority accountable to Parliament does not allow this approach. Rex complimented the Perth attendees on their passion for managing the work health and safety challenges distinctive to WA, such as the predominance of mining, remote and isolated work, communicable diseases, road safety where vehicles are the workplace, and environmental hazards such as mosquitoes and other biological pests. He also commented on their particular focus on occupational disease, noting that it reflected their mature approach to work health and safety issues. The focus on work health and safety training when registering a business, as well as providing kits for small and medium businesses, was also noteworthy. Rex went on to comment that the workshop themes such as the supply chain and safe design that had been chosen for exploration were just some of the many that are under active consideration by Safe Work Australia members as they develop the new National Strategy. He 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 may be sent to nationalstrategy@safeworkaustralia.gov.au.

33. Evaluation Outcomes Overall, feedback from the National Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 workshop in Perth on 9 June was very positive. Both quantitative and qualitative results were collected from 25 evaluation sheets, recording a 92% satisfaction with the venue and a 96% satisfaction with the opportunity to contribute. The length of the workshop was positive for 88% of attendees and the format by 80%. There was 86% satisfaction with the facilitator, 82% with the room set-up, and 74% for the food. One attendee expressed their view that the best thing about the workshop was the opening remarks by Mr Hoy, but that the use of butcher’s paper should cease while conversely others were happy with the team activity and asked for more workshops of a similar vein, but to include more “Gen Y” representation. Another attendee found the traffic and poor public transport at the non-central location an inconvenience, while others liked the venue, but felt that they would have added better value if they had received the questions and topics before the day so they could prepare material. Many of the participants found the opportunity to provide feedback and input at this critical stage of developing the new Work Health and Safety Strategy very worthwhile, and appreciated the opportunity to be heard on OHS matters. They also found it useful to meet people with similar interests from different industries as well as others working in this field and to explore solutions and ideas together. Some noted that while there was good organisation on the day by Safe Work Australia staff, the groups could have been better directed about their discussions, possibly by having a facilitator for each group. Other attendees criticised the fact that some participants had tried to grandstand, and suggested that the current approach of the same questions for each session was leading to people pushing their own agendas. The fact that the results would be recorded on the Safe Work Australia website was appreciated by many as useful for reference, as well as an opportunity to add additional input to the process of developing the Strategy. Some felt that while consultation over the strategy was worthy, the outcomes would still have a limited impact on safety direction over the next decade, while others advised us to place less emphasis on the Safe Work Australia role, given that the Strategy applies to a wider range of agencies. Others noted that an implementation plan would be needed to put the strategy into action. All of the input we have received has been noted, and is being integrated into future workshops to make improvements. Text in italics indicates direct quotes from responders