Page 1592 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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The compliance with the industrial relations and employment obligations strategy for the ACT government capital works projects, the IRE strategy, was introduced on 1 July 2011. One of the objectives was to eliminate sham contracting on ACT government construction sites. This is one of the industrial relations matters that the MOU is intended to address. The IRE strategy involves a review of the record of contractors and subcontractors seeking to be engaged on territory construction projects for compliance with industrial relations obligations as a precursor to any engagement as well as an ongoing audit mechanism for industrial relations compliance on active projects. Feedback about the IRE strategy indicated that it has had a positive impact on the industry. A review of IRE certification is being progressed and consultative meetings have been held with unions and industry, including the Master Builders Association, the CFMEU and the Long Service Leave Authority as well as other organisations.
I turn to active certification. Of course, the MOU covers work health and safety matters as well as industrial relations. The active certification program was developed in line with recommendation 25 of the Getting home safely report, which we have discussed at length in this place, with the ultimate objective of improving the safety culture on ACT government work sites. Work sites are subject to regular audit by independent auditors. Contractors found to be non-compliant with work health and safety requirements have a points penalty applied, with accrual of sufficient points resulting in the loss of pre-qualification status.
Since July of 2013 the ACT government has also been promoting work health and safety through the tender selection process for government construction projects by introducing a comparative assessment of contractors’ safety records and capacities. This is in line with recommendation 26 of the Getting home safely report.
It pleases me to note, Madam Deputy Speaker, that there has been a marked improvement in overall safety compliance as well as a reduction in notifications by WorkSafe ACT on government sites since those two measures were introduced. In fact, WorkSafe has advised that since the policy was introduced there has been a 27 per cent reduction in the accident rate per million dollars of construction and more than a 50 per cent reduction in formal notices issued by its inspectors in the 2014-15 financial year compared to the previous year.
The MOU also provides for consultation between the government and UnionsACT. In practice what this means is the government sends UnionsACT a list of respondents at the tender stage as well as a list of applicants for pre-qualification. This gives unions the opportunity to provide feedback on contractors’ industrial relations performance.
It should be noted that the same list of respondents—the very same list of respondents to tenders—has also been provided to the Long Service Leave Authority and the Environment Protection Authority and is made publicly available on the procurement website. Since the introduction of electronic tendering from July 2015, the list is available on the Tenders ACT website.
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