Tasmanian Business Reporter September 2018

T A S M A N I A’ S L E A D I N G B U S I N E S S P U B L I C A T I O N . C I R C U L A T I O N 12,000 M O N T H LY
Tasmanian Business Reporter - SEPTEMBER 2018 5
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
www.tcci.com.au
Never give up on WH&S Out-of-hours
Craig
Hortle
Workplace Health & Safety
ONCE a workplace
health and safety system
has been consulted on
with workers and agreed
on by management, the
next step in the process is
to implement it.
The process can be difficult
at times due to work
schedules, apathy in the
workplace for WHS, lack
of management support
and entrenched workplace
culture.
How are you able to
address these issues and
others when implementing
a WHS system?
The first and most important
step is to ensure
that management is supportive
of the process.
This is not merely a tacit
support of WHS policy
and procedure but being
actively involved.
This can be achieved
by:
• being involved in
safety meetings;
• implementing well
thought out safety initiatives;
• make WHS a topic
of conversation in the
workplace;
• practicing what you
require from workers;
and
• actively auditing the
system.
Work schedules can
be an issue if there are
varied starting times in a
workplace, different sites
for work activities and
different types of work
carried out.
These situations can
be overcome with some
suggestions including:
• varying information
session times for employees
to attend;
China leads increase in export value
THE value of Australia’s
exports of goods and services
rose 14.8 per cent
to $386.7 billion in 2017,
based on the DFAT publication
‘Composition of
Trade Australia 2017’.
China was Australia’s
largest export destination
(valued at $116.0 billion)
and import source (valued
at $67.4 billion).
Australia’s top five
goods and services exports
were:
- iron ore and concentrates
($63.1 billion)
- coal ($57.1 billion)
-education-related
travel services – which
includes foreign student
expenditure on tuition
fees and living expenses
Sally
Chandler
Tradestart Adviser
BUSINESS
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• ensuring consistency
of message across all
work activities (office,
production, workshop or
field work); and
• if a work site is significantly
different in
make-up than other sites
there may be a need to
tailor specific information
for that site.
Worker apathy and entrenched
culture may be
the two single most difficult
problems to overcome.
There is no silver
(30% share and 21.2%
growth in 2017), Japan
(12.2% share and 22.8%
growth in 2017), South
Korea (6% share and
14.4% growth in 2017),
USA (5.4% share and
1.8% growth in 2017),
India (5.2% share and
32.6% growth in 2017),
and Hong Kong (3.9%
share and 17% growth in
2017).
Other countries in order
of share of total were
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in Australia – ($30.3 billion)
- natural gas ($25.6 billion)
and,
- personal travel (excluding
education) services
– which includes
short-term visitors’ expenditure
in Australia
mainly for recreational
purposes – ($21.3 billion).
Australia’s top export
markets for goods
Alcoholic
and services were China
2
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Archer
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NZ (3.6%), Singapore
(3.1%), UK (3%) and Taiwan
(2.7%).
Interestingly, export
sales to the UK retracted
25.4% compared to the
2016 year.
BUSINESS
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WH&S needs to be a topic of conversation in the workplace.
Australia’s merchandise
trade with China
saw iron ore as the number
one export followed
by coal, wool and other
animal hair, copper ores
and concentrates, edible
products and preparations
(not separately recorded),
barley, crude minerals
(not separately recorded),
gold, aluminium ores and
concentrates, and copper.
beverages
came in 12th with 62.9%
growth in 2017, and beef
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bullet or one solution that
will solve these issues.
Some suggestions are:
• be consistent with the
message that you trying
to get across;
• don’t reward bad
safety behaviour;
• provide adequate
training in WHS principles
and your system that
you are implementing;
• listen to concerns or
problems that the system
has caused and implement
change when possible
to address these problems;
and
• do not give up.
Even though change in
a workplace can be difficult
it is not impossible
and can be achieved.
For information on
how to achieve this
please contact Craig
Hortle or Janelle
Whitehouse at the
TCCI on 1300 559 122
or safety@TCCI.com.
au
13th with 24.2% growth.
Merchandise exports
to Japan saw coal as the
number one export in
2017 followed by iron
ores and concentrates,
beef, copper ores and
concentrates, and aluminium.
The full document can
be accessed on the DFAT
website at https://dfat.
gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/composition-of-trade.aspx
For international trade
and investment assistance
contact Trade-
Start Adviser, Sally
Chandler, at sally.
chandler@tcci.com.au
or 1300 559 122.
Your Partner
in Print.
www.footandplaysted.com.au
Now incorporating
THE CRAFT LIVES ON.
conduct
also counts
Abbey
George
Workplace Relations
THE past month has been an interesting one
with several decisions being made by the Fair
Work Commission that may impact workplace
relations in the future.
In particular, out-of-hours conduct was found
to be a valid reason for dismissal in the case of
Oliver Bridgewater v Healthscope Operations
Pty Ltd T/A Prince of Wales Private Hospital.*
In this case the applicant was dismissed for
serious misconduct after being found to have
breached the employer’s sexual harassment
policy by sending a highly offensive and unwelcome
message of a sexual nature to a colleague.
This was despite the message being sent out
of work hours and not on work property.
From 1 August 2018, employees that are covered
by Modern Awards will have access to five
days unpaid family and domestic violence leave
where an employee is:
• experiencing domestic violence; and
• needs to do something to deal with the impact
of domestic violence; and
• it is impractical for the employee to undertake
that outside their ordinary hours of work.
This leave is available “in full” at the beginning
of each 12 month period of employment,
applies to all employees (including casuals) but
does not accrue from year to year.
This amendment in turn places obligations
on employers regarding the storage and access
to relevant information regarding the taking of
family and domestic violence leave.
Finally, another case to note is the termination
of an employee from Cricket Australia following
tweets being made about abortion. This
matter is listed with the Fair Work Commission
and has also resulted in proposed new social
media guidelines for public servants produced
by the Tasmanian State Service Management
Office.
*(U2018/2872) http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/
cth/FWC/2018/3921.html
You can contact TCCI by the Helpline on
1300 765 123 or the TCCI on 1300 59 122
or workplacerelations@tcci.com.au where
we can assist with your questions about
employment matters generally as well as
assisting with drafting any policies or procedures
required within your business.