Page 1623 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Under Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Act workers have had fewer accidents and the employers have had lower employment costs. However, there is still room for improvements in workplace safety in the ACT. Now is the time to extend the coverage of the legislation to improve protection for more workers.
Division 1 of Part IV of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1989 currently requires employers who employ more than 20 workers to establish designated work groups. Each designated work group must have an elected health and safety representative. The Occupational Health and Safety (Amendment) Bill 1992 amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act so that these provisions will apply to employers who employ 10 or more staff. Again there will be a small cost in training workplace safety representatives. However, with the benefit of hindsight, and understanding the improvements that the original legislation brought, I would expect everyone to support this legislation. Reducing the size of designated work groups from 20 to 10 will bring employee participation and responsibility to another 750 workplaces, or approximately 8,000 employees. It will cover sectors that until now have rarely been subject to the election of workplace safety delegates. These areas are the hospitality and retail sectors.
Since the introduction of the legislation the union movement has played a major role. The Trades and Labour Council has trained many workplace representatives, ensuring that employees themselves feel responsible for safety in the workplace. Labor's policy in preventing accidents in the workplace is clear. The dark ages of losing your job if you refused to work in unsafe conditions or the times when large accidents killed many workers because they were unaware of safety procedures are gone, thankfully. The gas build-up that claimed the lives of 32 Turkish workers could no doubt have been avoided. Labor will continue to support improvements in workplace safety.
The Opposition's policy towards occupational health and safety is also clear. A document put out shortly before the last election states:
An ACT Liberal administration will introduce occupational health and safety legislation that will ensure proper safety in the workplace.
The amendment being introduced today is a big step on the path to ensuring proper safety in the workplace and we therefore expect the Liberals' support. The document continues:
The legislation will not, however, lead to union-appointed "safety representatives" or union-controlled elections.
The unions, whether the Liberals like it or not, have played a supportive role in establishing the designated work groups. They have trained the representatives and have ensured that the workers are also responsible for their safety. The involvement of the unions has facilitated the improvements that have led to major benefits not only for the workers they represent but also for the employers. Finally, the Liberal document says:
The legislation will take into account a proper cost/benefit analysis of safety standards.
I do not believe that workers should accept unsafe working conditions on the ground that it might save costs. That is a short-sighted attitude, and I do not think anybody would disagree with that. A brief analysis of the last few years can give us an idea of the costs and benefits. In 1989-90, with the occupational
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .