Sally Jackson, writing in The Australian today, reports that one issue newsagents are seeking to discuss with West Australian Newspapers, under a recently ACCC granted collective bargaining arrangement, is overweight newspapers.
Jackson neglects to report that this issue of unsafe newspapers was first raised in a study conducted in South Australia by respected ergonomist David Nery – as I blogged here ten months ago.
The ergonomic study, funded by the Australian Newsagents’ Federation, found that Advertiser Newspapers’ product was regularly overweight. It appears that the ANF is using information from the SA study around News Limited product to support its position on the OH&S risks of overweight newspapers. This is a good move on the part of the ANF and will be welcome by newsagents.
It would have been good to see Jackson’s report in The Australian document the findings of the Nery study – News Limited has had a copy for eight months as its SA newspaper was at the centre of the study.