Host Lish Fejer is joined by University of Adelaide researcher, Dr Miriam van den Berg, alongside WorkSafe ACT's Work Health and Safety Commissioner, Jacqui Agius, as they explore the rise of platform-based gig work and what it means for worker health, wellbeing and day-to-day safety. Platform work involves people accepting short, on-demand jobs via apps or websites that match workers with customers, such as food delivery, rideshare, trades and even care and health services. Fejer, van den Berg and Agius discuss how this flexibility can bring uncertainty, low pay and an increased exposure to psychosocial risks. They cover who holds WHS duties when there’s no visible workplace or boss and how addressing legislative loopholes and Fair Work Commission minimum standards may improve conditions for everyone.

The episode references a recent Fair Work Commission case, the draft decision is available here.

Host Lish Fejer is joined by Certified Occupational Hygienist Kate Cole OAM and WorkSafe ACT Commissioner Jacqui Agius to discuss dangerous substances like asbestos and crystalline silica, and why these exposures remain major contributors to work-related disease and death in Australia. Most often encountered in the construction industry, silica is common in materials like concrete, brick and stone which becomes hazardous when cut or grinded into fine respirable dust. Similarly, asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral fibre that once damaged, disturbed or deteriorated can pose significant health risks. The conversation highlights long disease latency, cumulative exposure at work, uninformed exposure at home, and real enforcement examples in the ACT. They emphasise that asbestos- and silica-related diseases are preventable through eliminating exposure via safety-by-design, proactive asbestos removal and engineering controls like specialised equipment. Listeners are directed to Dangerous goods and hazardous substances - WorkSafe ACT for resources.

In this episode of The Safety Spotlight, host Lish Fejer discusses workplace injury, workers' compensation, and the return-to-work journey with Alistair Grant, President of the Australian Rehabilitation Providers Association (ARPA) and occupational therapist behind the Good to Go program, Peggy Cheong, the Acting ACT Work Health and Safety Commissioner.

They explore the scale of work-related injury in Australia and examine why getting injured workers back into meaningful employment remains so challenging. The episode delves into the two types of workers' compensation schemes, the growing burden of psychological injury claims, and the critical role of early employer support in improving return-to-work outcomes.

Resources discussed are available through WorkSafe ACT and ARPA's Good to Go initiative at goodrtw.org.au.