OHS - The Hidden Profession

Australian research usually makes use of the industrial and activity categories created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This creates a problem for research into the occupational health and safety (OHS) profession because there is no specific category for the OHS professional. Perhaps even more importantly, it creates problems for readers of these research reports because we risk imposing an interpretation on the data that is false. SafetyAtWorkBlog sought clarification from the ABS.

The ABS has a category that seems, initially, to fit the activities of the OHS professional - Division O: Public Administration and Safety. According to the ABS definitions, Division O:

"....includes units mainly engaged in Central, State or Local Government legislative, executive and judicial activities; in providing physical, social, economic and general public safety and security services; and in enforcing regulations. Also included are units of military defence, government representation and international government organisations."

But OHS operates across many industries and may involve:

Consulting/advice - potentially setting up business policy and practices etc.

Government policy and Legislation

Regulation

.....The absence of a specific category for the OHS professional could be a blessing. It accepts that the OHS profession has a diverse application and perhaps OHS professionals should exploit this as an opportunity. Perhaps it is better for OHS to have no King, Queen or "Face" but instead to have lots of faceless people who achieve real OHS change instead of just talking about it.

Kevin Jones

This is an edited version of the article which includes more details from the ABS available for subscribers at the award-winning SafetyAtWorkBlog - www.safetyatworkblog.com