30 Nov 09 - Harmonisation of national ohs laws – MARCSTA’s response to the draft model act and stage 1 regulations

MARCSTA’s response to the proposed Model Act clearly expressed strong opposition to proposals for change which it believes will have negative consequences for the occupational health and safety of workers in Western Australia.

 The aspects objected to were:  

 ·         Deleting the words “occupational” and “health” from the title of the Act.

Reason:

The health of workers is becoming increasingly important in today’s extended working hours environment with research around the world revealing that with people spending the greater part of their waking hours at work more attention needs to be paid to work-life quality.  Deleting reference to “occupational” and “health” in the title ignores the known facts.

  

·         Increasing the range and level of penalties.

 

  Reason:

The Robens Committee found 40 years ago that this approach was negative and inappropriate.  No evidence has since been provided to the contrary.

   

·         Applying criminal law and imprisonment for occupational safety and health breaches.

 

 Reason:

The process of prosecution and sanctions of the criminal law is inappropriate to the majority of infringements of OHS law which arise mainly through carelessness, oversight, lack of knowledge or means, inadequate supervision or sheer inefficiency.

 

 The Robens Committee recognised this and no convincing evidence to the contrary has been put forward in the discussion paper.

  

·         Allowing union “officials” to enter workplaces and interfere with existing procedures for the management of occupational safety and health.

 

 Reasons:

There are eminently satisfactory arrangements for managing safety and health in the workplace and no justification for interference by other parties, particularly as there is no requirement that these intruders be required to demonstrate that they have competence in occupational health and safety.

 

 There is no evidence that existing arrangements are inadequate or faulty.

 

·         The introduction of “representatives of a party” to the issue resolution process.

 

 Reason:

Once again, a proposal to alter the existing issue resolution process is without justification or foundation.  The issue resolution process, as recognised by Robens, is as one involving employers and employees and their safety and health representatives.

 

 Using safety regulators to adjudicate where necessary has been shown to be a satisfactory independent solution.

  

·         Extending the enforcement powers of inspectors.

 

 Reason:

Western Australia has not experienced problems with the existing role and powers of safety inspectorates.

 

 The Robens Committee were quite definite about the role of inspectors being “to prevent accidents and ill-health and the promotion of progressively better standards at work through the provision of information and skilled advice to industry and commerce.”

  

Providing unwanted police powers to inspectors is the exact opposite of that role and is neither necessary nor appropriate.

 

 Again, Western Australia has never observed any need for changing the role of its safety inspectorates and is unlikely to do so.

  

The discussion paper included a Regulation Impact Statement which concluded that national legislation might confer an overall marginal to small net benefit for business.  A careful read of the report would not take that opinion seriously as no evidence is forthcoming in the document.

MARCSTA's full response ExposureDraftforModelActandStage1ModelRegulations (171.73 Kb) 

24 Nov 08 -

MARCSTA Director of Safety and Health, Pat Gilroy, at the Safety Institute of Australia WA Conference in August 2008, made some striking points about the preferred model for national model OHS legislation, based on hard evidence. The Rudd government promised evidence-based government, so Pat’s views should have some appeal.

The first key point was that the WA mining industry has set the benchmark for mining safety by adopting the Robens challenge for employers to consult employees on OHS issues. Secondly the industry has the highest rate of penetration for safety and health representatives and the highest rate of training of them. Victoria has achieved big reductions in injuries with the same approach.

By contrast, the statistics for NSW where the model is one of increasing penalties, a high rate of criminal prosecutions and part of the fines being paid to the unions show that it is not the preferred option to use nationally.

 Will Increasing Prosecutions Improve OSH Performance (234.77 Kb)

 MARCSTA Submission to the National OHS Review (188.86 Kb)

 

6 Aug 08 -

MARCSTA has submitted comment to Commissioner S J Kenner, Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission on issues arising from the terms of reference for the Review of the Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994.

 MARCSTA Comment to Commissioner Kenner (0.51 Mb)