Before anyone starts yelling about those big bad unions, take a look at these workplace fatality statistics

The following figures represent someone’s mother or father, son or daughter, brother or sister, niece or nephew, aunt or uncle, grandparent or friend.

The numbers also make clear that, averaged out, three people were killed each week in a workplace accident between 1 January and 14 March 2017.

This is no blip in workplace fatality statistics – averaged out four workers died each week of the year in 2015 and three workers each week in 2016.

Work Safe Australia:

Worker fatalities

As at 14 March, 32 Australian workers have been killed at work in 2017.

The number of worker deaths listed on this page is based on initial media reports and is a preliminary estimate of the number of people killed while working. Once the appropriate authority has investigated the death, more accurate information becomes available from which Safe Work Australia updates details of the incident.

Updated information is used to publish Safe Work Australia’s annual Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities report which includes finalised work-related fatalities from 2003 onwards.

Year-to-date 2017: Preliminary worker deaths by industry of workplace^a

a Ranked in descending order, and then on alphabetical order for industries with no fatalities.

b Mining fatalities include fatalities that occur in the coal mining, oil and gas extraction, metal ore mining, gravel and sand quarrying, and services to mining sectors.

c Includes notifiable fatalities that occurred overseas.

Safe Work Australia also collects and reports on a range of other work health and safety and workers compensation statistics.

These figures are still too high. 

However if it wasn’t for the efforts of unions from the 1830s onwards to have wages, hours worked, sick leave, annual leave and workplace safety included in Australian industrial law, workplace fatalities would be much higher in this country today.

Dear Michaelia, About that young man......

In April 2016 an 18 year-old young man suffered a fatal injury while taking part in a Turnbull Government Work for the Dole program in Toowoomba ,Queensland.

He was cleaning up rubbish at the local showgrounds which is owned and operated by the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland (RASQ).

According to New Matilda in May 2016: On the very same day the young man was killed – in a grim coincidence – a group of unionists, social workers, activists and unemployed workers met in Melbourne. The conference was organised by the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, and heard testimony from people placed in Work for the Dole programs about the absence of proper safety measures on their sites. Little did they know that at the moment they were discussing these problems, the program claimed what may be its first fatality.

Work for the Dole Letter by BuzzFeedOz on Scribd

How safe is the Clarence Valley Council workplace?

On 19 March 2014 this letter to the editor appearing in The Daily Examiner set the alarm bells ringing, coming as it did on the heels of an earlier letter to the editor by another person and a locally reported application to the Industrial Relations Commission which led to a Clarence Valley Council employee returning to work after being officially dismissed:

Question bullying

Councillor Margaret McKenna's motion in council regarding violence against people on the basis of their sexuality is commendable (DEX, 15/3).

The violation of anyone's human rights is unacceptable in a civilised society.

Bullying and intimidation in the workplace is equally abhorrent and, I would suggest, a far more widespread form of human rights abuse.

If the good councillor were to ask just how many complaints of this kind of abuse have occurred within Clarence Valley Council over the past 12 months, she may be very unpleasantly surprised.

Bullying in the workplace can become endemic if it is not addressed forcefully and publicly. Bullying and intimidation are trademarks of an absence of quality leadership.

The impact on its victims, their families, their work colleagues, and the productivity and morale of the entire organisation is as profound as it is irreparable.

It cannot be contained or hidden.

We live in an age when social media and personal networks can negate any attempted commercial blackmail of mainstream media.

I would suggest Cr McKenna and all Clarence Valley councillors need to address an issue that threatens not only the reputation and integrity of this council but its continuance in office, and they need to do it immediately.

Ian Saunders

Maclean

Bullying in the workplace is a serious issue, but what has been rumoured since then is even more serious. 

There are allegations that the Clarence Valley Council workplace is now so toxic that some employees are quietly beginning to look for jobs elsewhere.

Some spooked by the alleged verbally abusive behaviour of more senior staff, others worried by the alleged scapegoating of workmates and some shocked by alleged threat/s of serious physical violence.

The general impression gathered is that Clarence Valley Council is no longer considered a safe workplace by sections of the wider Clarence Valley community.

I have no idea who Mr. Saunders is, but he appears to have come close to hitting the proverbial nail on the head.

If even one of these allegations has a basis in fact, it is time that all nine shire councillors addressed the issue of how and why local government workplace culture has been allowed to sink to such problematic depths.

Abbott to introduce serfdom to Australia

Little or no workplace protections, no social security safety net and a nebulous commitment to short term on-the-job training appear to be the order of the day for young men and women who join Abbott's Green Army.

The Sydney Morning Herald 1 March 2014:

A ''green army'' of 15,000 young people will be paid as little as half the minimum wage, as fresh details emerge of the federal government's plan to create Australia's largest environmental workforce.

The plans have attracted the ire of the ACTU, which says the workers will be excluded from protections granted by federal workplace laws and says the program threatens to reset youth wage rates sharply lower.

Under legislation introduced by Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday, green army participants - who will be aged 17 to 24 - will work up to 30 hours a week.

Young people who fill the green army's ranks will be paid about half the minimum wage, earning between $304.20 and $493.70 a week.....

Excerpt from A Bill for an Act to amend the law relating to social security, and for related purposes to be cited as Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Act 2014:

38J Certain participants in Green Army Programme are not workers or employees under Commonwealth laws 

(1) A person: 

(a) who participates in the Green Army Programme on a full-time or a part-time basis and who is receiving green army allowance; or 

(b) who participates in the Green Army Programme on a part-time basis and who is not receiving green army allowance; 

is not taken to be: 

(c) a worker carrying out work in any capacity for the Commonwealth, or an employee of the Commonwealth, for the purposes of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011; or 

(d) an employee within the meaning of section 5 of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988; or 

(e) an employee for the purposes of the Fair Work Act 2009; 

merely because of that participation. 

Excerpt from the Explanatory Memoranda:

The Social Security Legislation (Green Army Programme) Amendment Bill 2014 amends the Social Security Act 1991 and the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 to clarify social security arrangements for participants receiving the green army allowance paid under the Green Army Programme...

The Green Army is a key Coalition Government election commitment and will commence from July 2014. This voluntary initiative will recruit young people aged 17-24 years who are interested in protecting their local environment while gaining hands-on, practical skills, training and experience.

The Green Army will become Australia’s largest-ever environmental workforce, building to 15,000 participants by 2018, capable of delivering on-ground environmental projects...

The Programme will be delivered by an external Service Provider(s) who will be responsible for recruiting, establishing and managing Green Army Teams across Australia to engage in approved projects, alongside communities, to support local environment and heritage protection and restoration activities, consistent with regional, national and international priorities of the Government.

Participation in the Programme will be available to a diverse spectrum of young people, including Indigenous Australians, school leavers, gap year students, graduates and unemployed job seekers. Up to nine eligible participants and at least one Team Supervisor will constitute a Green Army Team. Participants will be eligible to receive a green army allowance while participating in the Programme, and will also have the opportunity to undertake training. The Service Provider(s) will be responsible for the disbursement of green army allowances and the provision of training. The Team Supervisor will be employed by the Service Provider and paid a wage.

Project proposals will be submitted to the Department of the Environment by individuals and organisations, such as local groups, councils and natural resource management bodies. A Green Army Project involves environmental and/or heritage activities that can be undertaken by a Green Army Team for 20-26 weeks.

The Programme will commence in 2014-15 with the rollout of 250 Green Army Projects and approximately 2,500 people undertaking on-the-ground environmental activities in the first financial year. By 30 June 2017, the Programme will have had 1,500 Green Army Projects and 15,000 placements undertaken. The Programme will scale up to 15,000 placements and 1,500 Projects per annum from 2018-19.

The Bill amends the Social Security Act 1991 and the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 to specify that persons receiving a green army allowance under the Green Army Programme cannot also receive a social security benefit or social security pension and that a determination made in this regard may be backdated. The Bill does not impact entitlement to family assistance and child care payments which will remain payable to Green Army participants where eligible...

Unfortunately little of this information is reaching Northern Rivers readers of APN News & Media newspapers, as the two main mast heads are running what are essentially reworked versions of government media releases without any evaluation of their contents.

Visitors, words of caution

Initially, a letter to the editor in Saturday's Daily Examiner touched my funny bone. However, it didn't take long for reality to return and all I could think was, "Been there. Done that. BUT, this is bl##dy serious!"

Bev's letter (read it below) is cause for many businesses and organisations to give a lot more serious thought to their workplaces' health and safety, especially in relation to their provisions for all persons' egress from their workplaces.

The Examiner might just as easily have titled Bev's letter "Enter at your own risk!"

Remember, employers also have responsibilities associated with the health and safety of visitors to their places of work. The legislation does not only relate to their employees.