Page 2014 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 May 2013
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Health and safety representatives elected by their colleagues are key to improving and maintaining workplace safety, and there is plenty of evidence that engaging workers in the safety of their own environments is crucial. They have the ability to ensure open dialogue between workers and managers in different workplaces and to make sure safety issues are addressed promptly.
The ACT government, indeed, the ACT Assembly, has been a leader in making laws to combat unsafe work practices. As industrial relations minister in 2004 I delivered the first legislation in Australia to provide for the offence of industrial manslaughter. The government amended the Crimes Act to ensure companies can be held responsible if criminally reckless or negligent conduct causes the death of the worker.
This legislation does not impose any greater responsibilities on employers than those already required under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1989, but it allows for new penalties to be imposed if an employer’s recklessness or negligence is proven beyond reasonable doubt. Penalties include fines of up to $220,000 for individuals and $1.1 million for companies and a maximum of 20 years imprisonment.
At the federal level legislation was updated to provide for industrial manslaughter in January 2012. While the ACT was disappointed that the federal laws stopped short of including a specific offence for negligence, we welcomed the fact that our commitment to workplace safety has helped to instigate change on the national level.
Despite the ACT’s proactive legislative stance, we have seen too many tragic deaths on construction sites in the territory. When Mr Corbell commissioned the inquiry into compliance with work health and safety requirements last August, we got the no-holds-barred results on the poor safety record and culture of the ACT construction industry. The Getting home safely report provides little comfort to the families and friends of those who have died or workers who have suffered serious injuries on unsafe construction sites. Unfortunately, it shows the cultural change I mentioned—the move away from an idea that danger is just part of a job—is yet to take a strong hold in our local construction industry.
But the report provides a path for improvement through 28 recommendations which the government has fully agreed to, and we are continuing to push safety reforms as a high priority. Where the government has control to improve safety on sites, we are acting, and Mr Corbell has brought an industrial magistrate a step closer with the tabling of an exposure draft last week. This is in addition to the steps we took in the aftermath of the Getting home safely report.
Ultimately, the day-to-day safe running of construction sites is in the hands of those who run them, and we want the key stakeholders—such as the construction companies, the MBA, the HIA and the CFMEU—to show leadership in reforming dangerous practices. At the time the inquiry panel released its finding, it noted that all stakeholders wanted to see change, and we are all obliged to keep up the momentum.
Where the ACT government runs workplaces day to day we are also acting. Under the ACT public sector workers compensation and work safety improvement plan, the
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