Violence against H&S practitioners

We are looking for H&S practitioners who have experienced violence in the workplace for a new article.

Have you been subjected to violence during the course of your work? How did you address it and what approach did you take to manage it?

Please post your comments here and we'll contact you.

Health and safety blamed...yet again

A Coke advertisement featuring Duffy, the singer, cycling in the street without lights or a reflective jacket has drawn 22 complaints.

The advert shows the singer cycling through the night along quiet streets, singing with passers by joining in.

Thankfully, the Advertising Standards Authority rejected all the compaints.

"Because of the fantasy context we concluded that the ad did not condone behaviour prejudicial to health and safety."

How about we get back to 'real' health and safety now?

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Be part of the solution

I attended the launch of the HSE's new strategy, 'The Health and Safety of Great Britain: Be part of the solution' yesterday.

Judith Hackitt (Chair of the HSE), James Purnell (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), Brendan Barber (TUC General Secretary) and representatives from the LGA and EEF were all in attendance, but apart from the rather attractively-designed literature, there wasn't much to report on.

A previous article by HSW on the strategy told us all we needed to know, and it seems the three-month consultation didn't change very much. However, we'd still like to know what you think of the new strategy; add your comments in the discussion forums.

The strategy is available to download here.

A rude awakening

On Wednesday morning I woke up to Barack Obama giving his victory speech - which, considering it was 4.30am, rather cheered me up. However, I am really not the sort of person who would rise at such a ludicrous time - election or no election, I like my sleep. The reason for my early awakening was to get the first train to Birmingham to attend the 2nd annual HSW/IIRSM conference.

It was an informative, enjoyable day - most of the speakers had obviously attended a comedy course as the jokes came thick and fast. But there were serious points too - namely defence lawyer Paul Burnley of DLA Piper's talk on corporate manslaughter investigations. He told the audience how he is involved in two of the first cases - and warned that police have arrested supervisors, site-level managers and directors and interviewed them under caution within weeks of the incident.

Read the full story here.

What are you worth?

Do you know the market rate for health and safety managers? How does your salary compare with other companies? We are conducting our annual pay survey and welcome your responses. Start the survey.

Online forum

Last week we held our first roundtable teleconference. Selected IIRSM members were invited to call in and discuss various topics high on the health and safety agenda in order to generate some good old fashioned debate - and they didn't disappoint.

Topics covered included CDM - how have the revised Regs bedded down? and what impact the new Corporate Manslaughter Act may have on industry. Recent stories in the press provided food for thought, and the profile of our industry certainly generated a welcome discussion. To read the forum threads in full, click here.

A write-up of the forum is also included in the April edition of the IIRSM Newsletter.

For details of our next teleconference, email me. All HSW subscribers and IIRSM members are welcome.