United Voice

Occupational Health and safety is one of the most important issues in the workplace, with almost half a million workers injured in Australia each year. Your employer must make sure that the work environment adheres to OHS standards, and must provide workers with the right training and equipment. Workers also have a general duty to ensure that they complete the job in a safe way.

The best way to make sure that OHS standards are followed at your workplace is to create a strong culture of unionism, so that people watch out for each other and make sure that all safety precautions are taken. 

Many different health and safety problems can arise at work, including:

•     Dangerous chemicals
•     Air quality
•     Accidents
•     Manual handling
•     Muscle and overuse injuries
•     Stress
•     Drugs and alcohol
•     Needlestick injuries
•     Workers compensation laws

Dangerous chemicals are the biggest single killer in the workplace. Over 2000 people die from chemical exposure every year.

You can help eliminate dangerous chemicals and organise OHS with your delegate and union to make your workplace free of risks and hazards.

Remember that your employer has to keep exposure to dangerous chemicals to a minimum.

What are dangerous chemicals?   

Dangerous chemicals can take any form - liquid, solid, fumes or dust - and can include:

•     solvents,
•     pesticides,
•     paints,
•     adhesives,
•     cleaning products,
•     petroleum products, or
•     heavy metals
  
  

All dangerous substances in the workplace must be labeled appropriately with a warning for users.

They must also have a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) which sets out the health effects, instructions for safe use and emergency instructions.

If a chemical does not have such labels, assume it to be dangerous.

What to do around dangerous chemicals   

Prevention is the best way to avoid chemicals causing you health problems.

It is best to use less hazardous chemicals instead of dangerous ones where possible.

But if you must use dangerous chemicals, you can take some precautions:

•     Don't use any chemical unless you see an MSDS. This has information about the
      chemical, so ask your boss to see it.
•     Read the health effects on the sheet and understand what they mean.
•     Always read the labels on chemical, especially the first aid.
•     Don't mix chemicals, or store different chemicals together.
•     Don't use a spray gun or atomiser to apply any chemical.
•     Make sure your equipment is safe and you have proper training.
  
  

If you have any chemicals in your workplace that you think are dangerous, talk to your delegate or contact your organiser.

Find out more

    DEWR: Hazardous substances - Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council
    on handling chemicals
    National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme - Government body
    overseeing the regulation of chemicals in Australia.
    US Environmental Protection Agency - Chemicals fact sheet.

The quality of the air we breathe is vital to our health, and air quality at work is no different. Workers face the health risks from working in hot or cold environments, or breathing in contaminants such as particles, dust, chemical fumes or tobacco smoke.

The quality of the air in your workplace is affected by:

•     temperature and humidity
•     air movement and changes
•     contaminants
  
  

It is important that you work in a workplace which is kept at a comfortable temperature and free from toxic contaminants.

You can help maintain air quality and organise OHS with your delegate and union to make your workplace free of risks and hazards.

How do you keep air quality safe?

Clean air in the workplace will only happen by workers identifying problems and making employers take action.

You can take several steps to ensure you breathe easily at work:

•     Ensure there is a proper air conditioning or filtering system
•     Ensure your workspace is away from any heat or pollutant source
•     Take steps to ensure your workplace is free from tobacco smoke
•     If you must work in poor air conditions, make sure you take proper breaks
  
  

If you think the air quality in your workplace is unsafe, talk to your delegate or contact your organiser.

Each year around 450 people are killed, and many thousands injured, due to accidents in the workplace. The sad fact is that most accidents in Australian workplaces are preventable, with unsafe work practices and human error the main causes.

You can help prevent accidents and organise OHS with your delegate and union to make your workplace free of risk and hazards.

Remember that your employer is responsible for health and safety at work, and by law has to act to prevent accidents.

Slips and falls are serious business

Some of the most common accidents in the workplace are slips, trip and falls. Often these do not cause major health problems, but they can lead to broken bones and worse. So it is important to keep an eye out for hazards in your workplace.

You can help make your workplace safer from slips, trips and falls:

•     Report any unsafe conditions to your delegate or supervisor
•      Wear footwear that is appropriate to your job
•     Report any accidents or near misses you have
  
  

If you are injured at work, see your doctor immediately and report it to your employer and union delegate.

Find out more   

    Workcover NSW: Slips, trips and falls - Information on preventing slips, trips and falls.

Up to one third of all work injuries in Australia occur during manual handling, with workers in industries such as cleaning, hospitality and manufacturing particularly at risk.

Manual handling is any activity involving effort, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying, moving or holding.

The kinds of actions that can cause manual handling injuries include:

•     Sudden, jerky or hard to control movements
•     Poor postures or too much bending, reaching and twisting
•     Heavy physical work or requiring forceful movements
•     Repetitive movements
  
  

You can help prevent accidents and organise OHS with your delegate and union to make your workplace free of risk and hazards.

Remember that your employer is responsible for your health and safety at work, and has to keep risks from manual handling to a minimum.

How do you prevent manual handling injuries?

Your chance of being injured from handling can be reduced by making sure proper procedures are in place and by being careful when doing tasks.

If you are handling something that you think risks injury you can:

•     Change the way the task is done or the load that needs to be moved
•     Change the layout of the workspace to make the task easier
•     Use better equipment to make the job easier
•     Make sure equipment is maintained properly
•     Use a safer procedure
•     Get proper training for the safely performing the task
  
  

If you are injured at work, see your doctor immediately and report it to your employer and union delegate.

Many workers are at risk of muscle, back and overuse injuries at work due to manual handling and repetitive movements. Muscle strains are one of the main manual handling injuries, but can also occur as a result of bad posture. Over one third of these are back injuries.

Overuse injuries (including Repetitive Strain Injury) result from repeated movements or holding the same posture and can lead to pain.

Remember that your employer is responsible for your health and safety at work, and has to take precautions to avoid injuries.

What can you do to prevent strains and overuse injuries?

The key to reducing the risk of strains and overuse injuries is to make sure your workspace and tasks are safe.

It is important to avoid:

•     Badly designed, inappropriate or poorly maintained equipment and furniture
•     Bending, twisting or stretching to perform a task
•     Long hours at work where there is little variation in movement or posture
•     Long hours of work without proper breaks
•     Lack of training in doing your work tasks
  
  

Talk to your United Voice delegate or branch to make sure that the tasks you have to perform at work are safe.

If you are injured at work, see your doctor immediately and report it to your employer and union delegate.

Stress at work is an extremely serious issue, sometimes leading to burnout, depression and even addiction and suicide.

An ACTU study found that one in four employees regularly take time off work due to stress.

Stress at work is generally the result of a few common problems:

•     Long work hours
•     Bad job design and duties
•     Insufficient training
•     Excess workloads
•     Poor management
  
  

How do you reduce stress at your work?

People respond to stress in different ways, so ways to reduce stress vary from person to person. Employers and employees can only aim to reduce stress levels, as work will always be stressful to some degree.

But you can encourage your employer to reduce stress levels by:

•     Encouraging them to set realistic targets and working hours
•     Implement stress management programs
•     Review work pratices to minimise stress
  
  

Contact your union delegate or branch for support.

Find out more

    ACTU: Reasonable Hours - Information on the ACTU 2003 campaign for better
    working hours.

Using alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs or illicit drugs at work can have serious consequences. They can impair judgement and coordination, or be compounded by exposure to other substances in the workplace.

Around one quarter of all workplace accidents, and 15-30% of all fatalities, involve employees under the influence of alcohol.

Employers should be encouraged to recognise that stress and the work environment can lead to increased use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

But workers have important responsibilities to stay straight at work. If you can't do your job properly, you risk prosecution under your award or agreement.

You can help reduce unsafe use of drugs and alcohol and organise OHS with your delegate and union to make your workplace free of risk and hazards.

How can you minimise harm from alcohol and drugs?

The way to minimise the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol at work is to make sure you have a fair drugs and alcohol policy. This policy should be developed by sitting down to work out a process that helps people with a problem. The policy should encourage people to report rather than hide problems. It should not be used against employees.

If you, or any of your workmates, have a problem with drugs and alcohol at work, talk to your delegate or contact your union branch.

Find out more   

    Drug and Alcohol overview.

Needlestick injuries are a major occupational hazard for many health and community service employees.

Whether it is from the sharp or pointed objects used to treat patients, or from discarded needles, ambos and other health workers are at risk of serious injury every day.

Thousands of Australian health care professionals suffer needlestick injuries each year, and this figure is growing.

These injuries put workers at risk of serious diseases such as Hepatitis B (with a 30% transmission risk), Hepatitis C (4% transmission risk) and HIV (0.4% transmission risk).

How do you prevent needlestick injuries?

Most needlestick injuries are preventable. Health care workers need different strategies for preventing needlestick injuries.

When treating patients, using safer needles can reduce the risk of needlestick injuries by up to 80%. Over 250 safer devices have been approved in the US.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of getting seriously ill from a needlestick injury.

To reduce the chances of being stuck by a needle, you should:

•     Use safer devices such as retractable needles wherever possible
•     Find out about proper procedures for handling needles from your OHS department
      and union delegates
•     Be aware of any needles in your surrounding
•     Make sure you are immunised against Hepatitis B
  
  

Talk to your United Voice delegate to make sure that the tasks you have to perform at work are safe.

If you are injured at work, see your doctor immediately and report it to your employer and union delegate.

Find out more

    International Sharps Injury Prevention Society - International web site with information
    and resources on needlestick injuries.
    Union needlestick campaigns - Links to union needlestick campaigns from Hazards.

Workers compensation is a legal system set up to help if you are injured at work. All employers must have a workers compensation policy.

The system provides for weekly payments to cover loss of earning, medical expenses and rehabilitation of anyone injured at work.

Compensation must be paid to a worker for any injury at work, regardless of whether the injury was the fault of the worker or the employer.

The system of workers compensation varies from state to state, so it is important to get the facts before proceeding with a claim.

If you are injured at work, contact your union delegate or branch to see whether you are eligible for compensation.

Find out more

For more information on workers compensation, visit the website of your state body:
    Australian Capital Territory - ACT Workcover
    New South Wales - Workcover NSW
    Northern Territory - NT WorkSafe
    Queensland - Qld Workcover Authority
    South Australia - Workcover SA
    Tasmania - Workplace Standards Tasmania
    Victoria - Worksafe Victoria
    Western Australia - Workcover WA