Our last News update was in April. At that time we could not have envisaged how our world would change over the next few months. As I write, Victoria, where the AIHS office is situated, returns to Stage 3 isolation and school students go back to home-based learning.
During this time OHS professionals have had to deal with the ‘double whammy’ of the risk of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the move to workers working from home where possible and the combined psychological stress. They have had to do this while still addressing the OHS of workers working in ‘essential roles’ all often while managing their own challenges of working from home and the related responsibilities.
During this time we have been hard at work to make the OHS BoK responsive to the current OHS needs.
A new chapter 37.4 Workers Working From Home was developed over eight weeks and published in early June 2020. Drawing on the very limited literature, a survey conducted by the AIHS and interviews of OHS professionals, the authors developed guidelines and a model for the design of work for working from home that moved the thinking away from a reliance on ergonomic checklists to one of a holistic approach to work design.
During this period we also released a new chapter 10.2.2 Rules and Procedures written by David Provan and updated versions of two chapters – 9.2 WHS law in Australia and 20 Fatigue. Other new chapters and updates are in the pipeline.
The OHS BoK is an important resource for OHS educators and OHS students. An update on the OHS BoK for Educators has been posted at LinK