Preparations have begun at the Leukaemia Foundation for their biggest annual fundraising event – The World’s Greatest Shave.
On the 10th-12th March, staff in businesses around Australia will volunteer to have their hair shaved or coloured all in the name of a good cause.
The Leukaemia Foundation states that every hour, someone in Australia is diagnosed with leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma. Every two hours, someone dies from one of these blood cancers. Money raised through the event is vital as it is directed towards research to improve treatment protocols and support services for patients and their families.
Hosting an event in your office can be a great morale boost as teams can cheer on their brave colleagues or departments compete to raise the most money.
For more information on the event, or how to get your office involved, visit the ‘Taking part at work’ Shave portal on the World’s Greatest Shave website.
The World’s Greatest Shave in March follows World Cancer Day, held on the 4th of February. These international awareness days can serve as a timely reminder of the impact of cancer across our community, business, families and social networks.
The onset of some cancers can be prevented through lifestyle modifications. Factors such as smoking (lung, throat, mouth etc), sun exposure (skin cancer, melanoma) and asbestos (mesothelioma) are all risk factors that can be avoided. Leading a healthy lifestyle can help too – consume a diet rich in antioxidants, fruits and vegetables, Omega 3’s and low in animal fats (preferably organic). Exercising and maintaining low stress levels are also beneficial.
In addition, early detection can drastically increase the success of cancer treatment. We should all maintain vigilance in ensuring that we are up to date with the recommended tests for our age and gender. A reminder list is provided below:
A new report titled ‘Effective Health and Wellbeing Programs’, has recently been released by Comcare, the Australian Government agency that works in partnership with employees and employers to reduce the human and financial costs of workplace injuries and disease in the Commonwealth jurisdiction. The report provides a review of the literature in relation to the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of health and wellbeing programs, both nationally and internationally. It also provides simple guidance to assist organisations and workplaces in designing, developing, implementing and evaluating such programs.
The report summarises the overwhelming support for the inclusion of health and wellbeing programs in the workplace that is presented in the literature. The economic costs of poor health on absenteeism, presenteeism and personal injury claims are widely documented and justify the importance of targeted workplace interventions to improve employee health.
One could argue that health and wellbeing programs have become a way for employers to maintain their corporate image and exist as employee attraction and retention strategies however their true value is much deeper than that. Workplace interventions that target some of the underlying causes of chronic disease can improve the health and quality of life of individuals.
The report reiterates that any workplace health and wellbeing program must have an evidenced based approach to the design, implementation and evaluation of all initiatives to ensure a solid return on investment. “Programs will only be effective in enhancing the health status of the workforce when the interventions address both individual and environmental influences”. That means, designing a program that will encompass three key focuses:
- Occupational Health and Safety or Environmental initiatives are those that target the safety of the workplace or those that change the physical environment. For example, policies involving hazard minimization or the addition of onsite facilities like showers or bike racks or an improvement to kitchen and eating facilities.
- Organisational Change or Culture interventions change the way the work is organized and emphasise the relationship of work to psychological health. Some of these could include working hours and flexibility, job content, morale, workplace engagement, leadership, peer interaction and conflict management.
- Voluntary Health Practices - involve the health and lifestyle decisions and behaviours made by an individual and include smoking status, exercise and nutrition habits or stress management.
The report confirms that the best programs are “well planned, have an early intervention/ prevention focus, are designed and developed with very strong ownership and input from workers, are targeted at the stated needs of workers, suitable for the workplace environment, are implemented and managed within a strong OHS policy framework and are regularly monitored and evaluated.”
Wesley Corporate Health specialise in the design and delivery of effective workplace health and wellbeing programs. To find out more information, please contact Kristen Demedio on 3234 2606 or visit our website: www.weshealth.com.au
In a climate where grocery prices appear to be constantly on the rise, it is still possible to fill a supermarket trolley of healthy foods and save money at the same time.
As an experiment, it is worth taking a look at your next grocery receipt to discover the items that are GST applicable or exempt. The GST has been in place in Australia since 2000; it is a goods and services tax, therefore items that are considered to be ‘luxury’ or non-essential incur an additional tax cost. When an item has GST applied the supermarket receipt has an asterisk * beside it.
However GST does not apply to items that are considered ‘essential’. These include bread, cereal, milk, eggs, meats, fruits and vegetables, fish, water, fruit juices, infant food and many ingredients required to prepare meals or products from first principles (flour, sugar, cheese, spreads/ oils, sauces etc). See full list of foods below.
Essentially, by choosing foods in as close to their raw or natural state, we are staying within a naturally healthy eating pattern and we are able to save money by avoiding the 10% GST. Natural foods with their fibre and protein also make us feel full and naturally limit our kilojoule intake.
Or another way of looking at it is that the GST is a marker for calorie dense food i.e. processed food. Processed or convenience foods are known for containing high amounts of fat, kilojoules, salt , artificial flavourings, preservatives and other additives. Take away food, restaurant meals and alcohol are all processed foodstuffs, are calorie dense and we can be sure that they are much higher in kilojoules. If fact an average restaurant meal has 2,200 kilojoules of energy more than an average home prepared meal.
There are exceptions to this simple guide. All breakfast cereals are GST exempt whether natural as in oats or high in sugar content such as the commercial brands. This exemption was made during public debate when the GST was imposed in 2000. We would be better off if that exemption had not been granted.
Another tip to approach the supermarket can be to do most of your shopping around the outside aisles – in doing this, you would spend most of your time in the fruit and vegetable, breads and cereals and meat/ dairy sections thereby choosing the healthier foods and avoiding the GST mark-ups.
For further information, see the Australian Tax Office’s GST food guide.
GST-Free and Taxable Food Items
GST-free food
GST does not apply to items that are considered ‘essential’. The following foods are GST-free:
- fruit, vegetables, fish and soup (fresh, frozen, dried, canned or packaged)
- bread and bread rolls without a sweet coating (such as icing) or filling
- all meats for human consumption (except prepared meals or savoury snacks)
- cooking ingredients, such as flour, sugar, pre-mixes and cake mixes
- fats and oils for cooking
- unflavoured milk, cream, cheese and eggs
- spices, sauces and condiments
- bottled drinking water, fruit or vegetable juice (of at least 90% by volume)
- tea and coffee (unless ready-to-drink)
- baby food and infant formula
- spreads for bread (such as honey, jam and peanut butter)
- breakfast cereals.
Taxable food
The GST is applied to food items that are considered ‘luxury’ or non- essential items. These include items that have been pre-prepared by a third party (i.e. take away or restaurant foods) or have undergone a degree of processing. The following foods are taxable:
- bakery products such as cakes, pastries, pies, sausage rolls (but not including bread and bread rolls)
- biscuits, crispbreads, crackers, cookies, pretzels, cones and wafers
- savoury snacks, confectionery, ice-cream and similar products
- carbonated and flavoured beverages (including flavoured milk, flavoured water and sports drinks) unless 100% fruit or vegetable juice
- all food and beverages sold in restaurants or for consumption on the premises
hot food (takeaway)
- food marketed as prepared meals and some prepared food, including platters
- any food not for human consumption
- pet food or any food labelled or specified for animals.
Below is a local grocery bill in which every item featured is exempt of the GST. This bill also provides a good example of the types of food that you can buy without incurring the GST.
Source: ATO GST Food Guide
Each year as the flu sweeps through the community, the effects of this highly contagious and severely debilitating illness are felt by not only the individual, but also their employer.
An Australian study found that the flu was responsible for up to 1 million medical consultations, 20,000 - 40,000 hospitalisations, 1,500 deaths and 1.5 million days off work each year.
The economic cost results from increased absenteeism, where up to 10% of all cases associated with illness, is due to influenza. In addition to days spent away from work, impaired work performance is likely to follow. In fact, an individual’s productivity can be inversely affected for up to two weeks following infection.
To minimise this significant financial impact, there are a number of preventative measures available for employers. These strategies will also minimise the transmission of the flu within the workplace.
- Adopt a vaccination program
The flu vaccine is the best defense against contracting the flu. The World Health Organisation recommends vaccination as the primary and most effective method to prevent outbreaks of the illness. Among healthy adults, the influenza vaccine can prevent between 70-90% of infections.
A study examining the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine found that employees between the ages of 18-64 experienced fewer episodes of upper respiratory tract illness (25%) and fewer days off work as a result of these illnesses (43%).
- Promote good workplace hygiene
The influenza virus can survive for up to an hour in a closed environment like the office, more than 8 hours on hard surfaces (e.g. stainless steel or plastic surfaces) and up to 5 minutes on hands after transfer.
Therefore promote key hygiene practices including hand washing with soap, use of antibacterial gel after coughing / sneezing / touching of the nose and before touching other people or communal objects.
- Offer flexible working arrangements
By offering flexible working arrangements, you will encourage staff to stay at home until fully recovered. This will also help prevent other employees getting sick.
These preventative measures combined with a comprehensive vaccination program can provide benefit to employees and employers by protecting health and minimising the costs associated with increased absenteeism and lost productivity during the flu season.
Wesley Corporate Health can deliver vaccination programs to your workplace. For an individualised quote for your organisation, please contact Emily Jones on 3234 2604 or visit our website.
References
- Influenza Specialist Group. 2006. Influenza, A Guide for Occupational Health Professionals, http://www.influenzacentre.org/reports/ohs_06.pdf
- Solvay S.A. 2010. Economical benefits of influenza vaccination. http://www.solvay-influenza.com/aboutvaccination/economicbenefits/0,,30296-2-0,00.htm
- World Health Organisation. 2009. Influenza (Seasonal) Fact Sheet No211, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/index.html
- Influenza Specialist Group. 2010. The Spread of Influenza. http://www.influenzaspecialistgroup.org.au/about-influenza/spread-of-influenza
