Limiting the spread of infectious, communicable diseases within the workplace is a complex and frequently sensitive issue. Hazards associated with diseases vary significantly from one workplace to another and the need to privacy adds further complications.

The Comparative Performance Monitoring report 21^st edition and Comparison of Workers’ Compensation Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand 2019 have been published.

There have been minor amendments to 11 compliance codes made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 approved by the Minister for Workplace Safety, Jill Hennessy, which came into effect from the 19^th December 2019.

Experts agree that improved safety contributes to profitability in many ways. Costly incidents are avoided. Employees naturally become more emotionally and physically invested in their work. Workforce turnover goes down, while productivity and quality go up.

For someone running a small to medium sized business the letters SMS, standing for safety management system can be a forbidding acronym. The SMS for a large and complex organisation can be a document of many thousands of words over hundreds of pages, prescribing a bewildering array of meetings and procedures. But the power of SMS as a concept means it is scalable. A small organisation can reap safety and business benefits from a much simpler SMS. All you have to do is stick to it.