WA puts workers at risk by refusing to sign up to harmonised OHS laws | ACTU

WA puts workers at risk by refusing to sign up to harmonised OHS laws

Published: 26/09/2011

Unions have condemned the West Australian Government for putting politics before the state’s workers by refusing to sign off on the national harmonisation of OHS laws.

ACTU Assistant Secretary Michael Borowick said the Government had had two years to work towards agreement on the new laws, set to come into effect from the start of next year, but had instead employed stalling tactics to avoid its responsibilities.

“Premier Colin Barnett must explain to the workers of WA why he believes they should not have the same protections at work as the rest of Australia,” Mr Borowick said.

“Claiming they have not had enough time to anaylse the impacts of the laws is simply ridiculous when they have had more than two years to do so.

“Harmonising Australia’s individual state and territory laws is in the interest of improving workers’ safety across the country.

“Hardly a week passes without workers in WA’s resources sector being injured, which only reinforces why the state must be a part of nationally harmonised OHS laws.

“If workers in this state are not given the same protections as the rest of Australia, then lives will undoubtedly be at risk.

“The upper estimates of Safe Work Australia are that 7000 Australian workers die each year as a result of workplace injury or illness. That’s five times the annual national road toll. It’s 20 people a day.

“In the 2010/11 financial year, Worksafe WA was notified of 45 deaths at workplaces in the state and on average 51 WA workers are injured at work each day.

“Across Australia another 640,000 are injured at work each year.  These are shocking figures. The level of death and injury in this country is unacceptable.

“All governments have a responsibility to make workplaces safe for workers. But by refusing to sign up to the harmonised laws, Mr Barnett is ignoring his responsibilities and ignoring workers’ safety.”

Mr Borowick said it was appalling that the WA Government did not want families or unions to be able to initiate prosecutions against companies and wanted to stop unions from immediately entering worksites where there had been a breach of safety laws.

“This is another reminder of why it falls on us in unions to be vigilant about safe workplaces. Because we can’t rely on governments, and if the WA Government refuses to act, there will be no onus on employers to make workplaces safe,” he said.
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