Criminal sanctions for workplace injuries and deaths
20 September 2001
Labor Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Wayne Berry today announced the introduction of criminal sanctions for workplace injuries and deaths including the crime of industrial manslaughter.
Mr Berry’s announcement is the latest in a series of improvements he has made to the Occupational Health and Safety Act to enhance workplace safety in the ACT. These included the establishment of an independent Occupational Health and Safety Commissioner as recommended by the Coronial Inquiry in the tragic Canberra Hospital Implosion as well as a regime of on-the-spot fines as recommended by a 1995 report from the Productivity Commission.
Mr Berry also made the necessary legislative changes to allow the courts to determine charges arising from the Hospital Implosion after the then Attorney General Gary Humphries failed to do so.
Mr Berry’s move is consistent with a similar move by the Victorian Labor Government to establish the crime of industrial manslaughter which is yet to become law and recommendations from the Productivity Commission that heavier penalties should apply for workplace safety breaches.
"The strengthening of occupational health and safety laws in Australia has been a gradual and collaborative approach over many years and it is now timely to put in place criminal sanctions for serious breaches," Mr Berry said.
"Criminal sanctions have been commonplace for death and injury caused by negligence or failure to act appropriately in many areas and it is no less appropriate to have similar sanctions for dangerous workplaces.
"Labor will immediately move to have these industrial manslaughter laws drafted after the October Assembly election, in consultation with industry and the union movement, with the view to having these laws in place by the end of 2002.
"With over 111,000 workers compensated for work-related injuries and sickness and 400 compensated fatalities each year across Australia there is still much work to do.
"All workers are entitled to return home from work without injury or illness and unless governments take the issue seriously the stream of unacceptable injuries will continue.
"If you drive your car recklessly and someone is hurt or killed there is a criminal sanction. Why shouldn’t criminal sanctions apply in the workplace?" Mr Berry concluded.