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 About Us  About Unions NSWAbout UnionsWho's WhoInformation Centre What's Going On? Annual Reports    
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Mary Yaager, Workers Compensation and Occupational
Health & Safety
Officer
Mary retained her responsibilities for the coordination and development of the Labor Council’s policies and organising campaigns in the areas of:
In addition to this, Mary also retained the responsibility for coordinating and organising campaigns in rural and regional sectors. Mary has assisted other officers, Alison Peters and Mark Morey, in organising issues in the rail and transport sectors. WorkCover’s Legislative Assist ProgramDevelopment of Training PackagesThe Labor Council received government funding through the WorkCover Legislative Assist Funding Program to assist unions to educate their delegates and members on the recent reforms of workers compensation and occupational health and safety. Mary has developed comprehensive training modules for return to work and risk management. Train the Trainer and Organising Around OH&S WorkshopsAfter the training modules were developed and approved by WorkCover, Mary conducted a number of Train the Trainer seminars for all union organisers on the risk management training workshop. Occupational Health and SafetyMary, through the WorkCover Legislative Assist Funding Program, produced:
In addition, Mary also developed a separate component which focused on how to use occupational health and safety as an organising tool in the workplace. Future OH&S CampaignsBullyingBullying has been identified as one of the major OH&S issues across all industries. The Labor Council will look at developing and running a campaign, jointly with the ACTU Organising Centre, about bullying in 2004. Mary will be involved with other Labor Council officers in this campaign. The Labor Council has established a Campaign Steering Committee comprising of a number of unions and delegates. The Steering Committee has made the following recommendations:
Partnerships with TAFEYouthSafe ProjectThe Labor Council of NSW invited the TAFE NSW Sydney Institute to provide a proposal for the development and the supply of a computer based training resource in the area of Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) for young people. The project is to cover two specific groups identified by the Labor Council of NSW:
The objectives of the YouthSafe Induction Package are to:
This project is aimed at young people entering the labour market and young people entering employment with the target age group being 15 to 20 years. Mary will oversee the project. The package is to be made available to: employers, schools, registered training organisations, job network agencies, group training organisations, community groups and other stakeholders. To interest the target audience, the package will be interactive, brief and punchy and designed to complement any induction held at the workplace, e.g. the recently released WorkCover Induction Course, and not to be seen as a substitute. The package will be developed in three discrete sections: Computer Based TrainingA screen based interactive section of an hour duration that will set out why the target audience should be concerned about health safety at the workplace. This section will motivate the individual to identify OH&S as an important issue for them, their colleagues and the community. This section will also start to develop an understanding of the processes in place in the workplace to prevent incidents and accidents. The content will include:
Workplace ExerciseAn exercise that will have the participant actively seeking an OH&S program at their workplace or a case study. This exercise is aimed at identifying the processes, systems and procedures in the workplace that deal with OH&S. This will include employers’ requirements under the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001, such as:
On-line AssessmentParticipants will then be required to complete an online assessment activity. This will develop on from the workplace exercise and take the form of multiple-choice questions. Participants wishing to complete this stage will register on the website and be given a discrete number. Successful completion of the exercise will allow the participant to apply to TAFE NSW Sydney Institute for a Certificate on Completion. The Certificate may be dual badged with the Labor Council of NSW and/or NSW WorkCover. Certificate IV in Workplace SafetyThe TAFE NSW Sydney Institute and the Labor Council have negotiated a special training package for union officials to assist them in gaining the Certificate IV in Workplace Safety, and the Certificate IV Assessor and Workplace Trainer which are necessary for delivering WorkCover OH&S training to OH&S committees and OH&S representatives. On completion of both qualifications, Union officials will be able to train their own staff as safety representatives in partnership with TAFE NSW. UnionSafe WebsiteThe UnionSafe website was officially launched at the Delegates Conference in 2002. As part of a WorkCover grant project, Mary developed the Labor Council’s occupational health and safety Internet site to sit alongside LaborNET. The Unionsafe website was specifically designed to make union organisers and their delegates’ job easier.
The site also includes a continually updated OH&S news service, fact sheets on the law, an A to Z of hazards information, discussion groups and a facility for union representatives to have their queries answered online. The Labor Council has employed an assistant, Daniel Walton, to assist in the development of the OH&S fact sheets as well as maintaining and updating the UnionSafe website. Mary has worked closely with Essential Media Consultants, to extensively promote occupational health and safety issues in 2003, targeting the growing network of workplace safety representatives. The number of subscribers to the UnionSafe email alerts has shown a remarkable increase in the last quarter of 2003. UnionSafe media publishes weekly news stories on the UnionSafe websites, sends out monthly email bulletins to our subscriber base and develops stories for use in the mainstream media. In 2003, UnionSafe promoted emerging OH&S issues, such as bullying, through coverage of the PSA Womens Conference and accompanying news stories such as overwork, through coverage of the phenomenon of Karoshi, the Japanese incidence of people literally working themselves to death. UnionSafe also covered issues relating to violence in the workplace, particularly through stories of violence directed at State Rail employees, and has closely followed the campaign for industrial manslaughter laws. UnionSafe promoted the winners of the NSW Safety Achievement Awards, presented at the UnionSafe Safety Delegates Conference, in regional and local media, highlighting the importance of safety in the workplace and giving safety issues a local and human context. 2nd Annual Safety Delegates Conference – 5th December 2003Mary organised the 2nd Annual Safety Delegates Conference for union delegates. Mary also arranged for the Premier of NSW to present safety achievement awards to the workplace delegates in recognition of their contribution to safety in their workplace. This year saw the first of two special awards being given.
At the conference the Hon John Della Bosca, Minister for Industrial Relations, launched the OH&S Charter of Rights for elected OH&S representatives. The highlight of the conference was when the delegates gave their own accounts of how they had improved workplace safety. The feedback was very positive and highlighted that it is a great opportunity to network, share experiences and ideas and be provided with resources and information to make the job of a safety representative easier, with the addition of the improved venue and technology. Brian Miller Lifetime Safety Achievement AwardAt the Labor Council’s first Safety Delegates Conference in 2002, Brian Miller received the Lifetime Safety Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution over the last 30 years to improving workplace safety. The Labor Council decided to name the Lifetime Achievement Award after Brian, but sadly Brian Miller passed away earlier this year before he could see the first winner receive the Brian Miller Award, Terry Hannan formerly of the PSA. Frank Belan AwardThe Labor Council has also established another award in memory of the late Frank Belan, former secretary of the NUW. This award is in recognition of a person’s contribution to the union community. This year the award was presented to Robyn McGoldrick who lost her son Dean in an industrial accident. Robyn has campaigned with the union movement to improve safety and also assisted in the campaign for legislation on industrial manslaughter. Charter of Rights for Elected OH&S RepresentativesMary developed a Charter of Rights for union elected OH&S representatives. The Charter of Rights was launched by the Minister at the 2nd Annual Safety Delegates Conference 2003. This was important because of the introduction of the OH&S Act 2000, and will be a useful tool for unions to encourage their OH&S delegates to take up the opportunities provided by the legislation. The Charter provides information about the rights and responsibilities of OH&S representatives, such as:
Drug and Alcohol in the Rail IndustryMary assisted Alison Peters and Mark Morey to develop a comprehensive Drug and Alcohol Policy for the Rail Sector. This was in response to the Government passing legislation to allow for random drug and alcohol testing of all rail safety workers. Other ResponsibilitiesMary represented the Labor Council on the following Boards and Committees: -
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