Page 806 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Ministerial Statement and Papers
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health), by leave: I would like to inform members of a considerable landmark in the implementation of badly-needed reforms in the area of occupational health and safety in the ACT. It is a duty of considerable pleasure for me to tell members of an agreement reached by the ACT Government's largest employer, an organisation under my direct control as Minister for Community Services and Health. The accord is one between the ACT Community and Health Service and the ACT Trades and Labour Council to govern workplace safety standards for more than 5,000 people occupied with the health and welfare interests of the broader ACT community.
The accord predates legislation currently under consideration by the Commonwealth Government for all public sector employees including the ACT. As members will be aware, it was only in the inaugural sitting of this Assembly in May that the Government introduced legislation to rectify the fact that the ACT remains the only State or territorial jurisdiction in Australia without comprehensive occupational health and safety laws for its private sector. As members know, that legislation is currently under review by a select committee and is to be returned to the Assembly during this sitting for appropriate action.
I think it is very fitting that the organisation charged with providing health, community and welfare support to the people of the ACT should also be able to provide an example for other organisations who will be required to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Bill 1989.
I would like today to detail to the Assembly the Community and Health Service in-house agreement, which is the result of the extensive negotiations conducted following periods of somewhat turbulent industrial relations. The process by which the agreement was developed was in itself instrumental in improving relations between the parties.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank members of the working parties who conducted the negotiations; in particular, Mr Charles McDonald, Secretary of the ACT Trades and Labour Council, and Mr John Bissett, General Manager of the ACT Community and Health Service.
One of the main aims of this agreement is to help reduce the cost of compensation claims to the community by better prevention methods. It is my belief that the document I am about to detail will establish strong guidelines for a dramatic increase in the level of industrial harmony within the ACT Community and Health Service. In general, the ACT Community and Health Service occupational health and safety agreement has objectives that are threefold.
It has been drawn up to establish methods for staff to have access to prompt advice wherever occupational health and
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