Three and a half years after the Nery report into the OH&S issues surrounding newspaper delivery was handed to News Limited by the ANF, News has written to newsagents rebutting key findings in the report.
As I blogged on November 20, 2006, the Nery report, commissioned by the ANF, found unsafe work practices which stem from the handling of heavy newspapers. The ANF was upset that I publicly discussed the report and subsequently published it here. The concern, as put to me, was that newsagents could have work place claims unless they changes practices to reflect the report’s recommendations. The ANF and other associations wanted the report kept quiet out of fear of workplace OH&S claims.
David Nery, the respected author of the Nery report was clear:
The current situation, in my view, is unsafe and modifications to the weight, dimensions and volume of papers distributed per person need to be reduced to provide a safe system of work.
Yesterday, News Limited issued a rebuttal to newsagents, based on their own expert study. Their report, or what has been published to newsagents at least, is years late and lacking in detail and professional scope compared with that of David Nery. The News Limited rebuttal is in the from of a letter telling newsagents that they are responsible for OH&S issues relating to newspaper delivery. They claim that Nery is wrong and that it is safe to deliver heavy newspapers.
News says that newsagents control the number of people doing newspaper home delivery. While this is true, one could easily argue that News, through controlling delivery fees, customer acquisition and other factors in home delivery, determines the number of people employed.
News is wrong to have taken three and a half years to respond and wrong to lay responsibility at the feet of newsagents.
News Limited controls the weight and dimensions of the product being delivered. They also control most of the economic terms relating to newspaper home delivery: delivery fees, cover price and requirements about obligations on newsagents to accept customers. These economic terms determining whether newsagents can reasonably split a heavy product into two.
Newsagents need to revisit the Nery Report in the context of the communication from News Limited yesterday. If I still had a home delivery business and were in a position to influence industry response I would:
- Re-engage David Nery for a response.
- Talk with Worksafe and other state government OH&S bodies for an opinion.
- Talk with insurance companies to determine liability on the insured should an injury claim be made relating to this issue.
- Assemble a team of experts to research and guide a whole of industry response. The team would include an appropriately skilled lawyer, OH&S expert, medical expert, a newspaper deliverer and a newsagent.
- Discuss with the federal government funding opportunities to help newsagents pay for the necessary research and advice in navigating such a complex issue.
- Set a timeline for progress on this.
- Seek agreement from News Limited to engage nationally given that they are dealing with it internally nationally.
It may be that the process results in a negotiated middle ground position between News and newsagents. If it doing nothing wrong, News should have nothing to hide and therefore be prepared to actively engage.
Time is an issue here. The last thing any party wants is a legal case where repeated delivery of heavy newspapers is represented as a cause of workplace injury.
It seems that this new Hely report was written by the Melb Storm management…
I was speechless when i read the communication from HWT….still am!
Only one question……has anyone associated with the Hely report actually been out and delivered 600 papers @ 1kg each?
Once again I find out more here than the ANF or VANA about a matter vitally important to my newsagency.
I have lost one driver because of heavy papers. Thankfully he did not do permanent damage. His resignation was more preventative than anything else.
The people at News are kidding themselves saying it is my responsibility. They pay me to deliver one item then they provide an item which is overweight.
Mark are you saying that VANA has been aware of this for three and a half years?
David, VANA and the ANF were aware of the nery report since November 2006.
I’m with you Vaughan, where did they pull that from???
I’m still speechless after reading the “OHS” (what a joke) announcement on Qld News Connect site late yesterday afternoon. Makes you wonder what the next ‘late in the week’ communications will be as News Ltd evolve their newspaper distribution system over the course of our new 2 year contracts. So so so glad that we have recently sub-contracted our run.
Newspaper publishers
across the world don’t respect newspaper retailers.
The solution for retailers is to take control of their own destiny in the way you have with your business Mark.
A senior circulation man at a major UK publisher replied to me on a health & safety issue that it was my responsibility and I changed the way we do newspapers. I did my risk assessment and set limits on the weight we would handle based on my risk assessment. As i explained to our customers what we were doing and why it left the publishers with nowhere to go.
Steve
don’t worry in 1 0r 2 years we will sell less and less papers