By Michael Selinger

In Tuesday’s bulletin we drew your attention to the fact that October is National Safe Work Month. Today, we look at what you can do to become actively involved in health and safety during the month, including by attending one of the numerous events held throughout the country.

If you are a senior manager, you should consider taking a lead on safety during October by hosting your own health and safety event within your business, which will also demonstrate you are exercising due diligence.

You can easily participate this month in a number of events organised by the safety regulator in your jurisdiction, as outlined below.

New South Wales

NSW will be hosting many events each week that will focus on a different high-risk harm and how you can take steps to work safer.

Victoria

Victoria has a variety of seminars and presentations taking place throughout the period and across the State. The topics are broad and range from Q-fever to road construction safety, updates on the new OHS regulations and how to communicate effectively with general practitioners in developing a return to work strategy. There will be an awards ceremony and gala dinner in Melbourne on 19 October 2017.

Queensland

In Queensland, there will be an employer breakfast seminar series, community breakfast as well as an injury prevention and return to work conference, expo and awards night held in Brisbane on 18 October 2017.

South Australia

SA has a jam-packed October with events ranging from Mock Court to breakfast and lunch seminars on shift work, fatigue, labour hire, manual handling, mental health, young workers and vehicle safety.

Western Australia

In WA, Safe Work October will include a number of safety and health workshops, as well as a safety award breakfast presentation tomorrow (Friday 6 October 2017 at the University Club of WA).

Tasmania

In Tasmania, safe work events will be held at numerous locations including an expo, breakfast forums, workplace visits and online events.

Northern Territory

Safe Work Week in the NT starts on 17 October with a full day of sessions.

National

A full list of contacts for activities in each State and Territory for safety month can be found at the Safe Work Australia website.

Virtual seminar series

Safe Work Australia (SWA), the federal agency that developed the harmonised safety laws, is also promoting a virtual seminar series, which can be accessed throughout the month. There are two sessions – Building a Bully-free Workplace on 10 October and Major Entertainment Events on 24 October 2017.

How you can get involved

Through strong leadership you can achieve better safety outcomes in your organisation. Managers should take the opportunity this October to promote a vibrant safety culture.

Some ideas for safety month you can implement in your business include:

• distributing information about your business’s commitment to an excellent safety culture;
• launching a new health and wellbeing initiative;
• hosting a morning tea focused on safety;
• conducting a safety workshop; and
• hosting a session with a guest speaker on safety.

The next step for health and safety

No matter which workshop you attend, or even if you attend none at all, this month is a great opportunity to share safety tips across industry.

Building your stock of safety knowledge by consulting within your workforce and with your peers can open up new opportunities to keep a workforce safe and potentially avoid future problems.