Page 3893 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 2011
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occupational health and safety laws. That is an important right. The CFMEU, for example, believes that the existence of this right is a huge deterrent to employers who might endanger their workers.
The ability to take private prosecution also permits the enforcement of issues that government may not see as requiring action. This is especially so in the construction industry where the work is more dangerous and risky than most workplaces. Even in Australia where standards are generally good, there is an average of one worker killed a week in the construction industry. Making prosecutions harder is likely to result in less prosecution and less pressure on employers to deliver safe workplaces. However, when taken, they have proven to be invaluable in improving safety in workplaces.
The right of unions to prosecute breaches of occupational health and safety law has been an effective tool and a real disincentive to employers to flaunt the law. The union right to prosecute ensures that large employers respond more quickly to demands from their workforce to protect the safety of their employees. Dismantling the right of unions to prosecute occupational health and safety breaches reduces employers’ accountability for the safety of their workers.
Workplace health and safety laws must put the interests of employees first and must ensure that working people go to work and come home safe and well. Union prosecutions have been effective in strengthening safety standards not only for working people but for the community at large.
The very successful prosecution by the Finance Sector Union that was directed at reducing armed robberies in bank branches is an excellent illustration of the effectiveness of union prosecutions. Tired of seeing not only their members but also members of the public physically and psychologically injured as a result of armed hold-ups, the Finance Sector Union decided to take action. It did that in the absence of action by employers and in the absence of action by workplace regulators such as WorkCover.
We have not yet seen any private prosecution in the ACT. However, as I have already listed there are other successful examples across the border in New South Wales and they are not in the type of workplace you might expect.
As I stated, the Finance Sector Union took successful court action in 2002 and the major banks of New South Wales were forced to invest some $100 million in improving safety standards. The result has been a dramatic fall in armed robberies from 102 in 2002 to just four last year. It is the goal of the Greens’ industrial relations policy that all workers have safe and secure workplaces and that all workers have access to appropriate compensation and occupational health and safety cases.
I would urge the ACT government to maintain a statutorily enshrined right for private prosecutions. I point out that New South Wales actually amended its bill to retain this right. I acknowledge that the ACT has worked to retain the common law right for private prosecutions. I point out, though, that the common law right is likely to be a more costly and less effective alternative to the statutory right and it will be beyond the means of many union affiliates or union members.
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