HEALTH AND SAFETY IN EMPLOYMENT AMENDMENT BILL
New legislation (Bill) has been tabled in Parliament this week to amend the Health and Safety in Employment Act. The reason for its introduction is based on statistical evidence indicating a high level of workplace incidents and accident resulting in an unacceptable high number of work related illness, injuries, lost work days and death.
The intent of the proposed legislation is to:
- Extend the coverage of the Act to include industries not previously covered including: Air, Maritime and Rail sectors
- Acknowledges and recognises that work related stress and fatigue are specific hazards and will carry instant fines when clear breaches of the Act are identified. Remember under the existing Act employers are required to continually identify, monitor and remove or remedy such hazards
- Remove the monopoly (by OSH) on filing prosecutions by allowing individual private prosecutions against organisations
- Allow workplace Health and Safety Representatives to issue notices to employers to remedy work place hazards
- Increase the maximum level of fines that could be imposed to $500,000.
Obviously the Bill has only just be introduced and will need to go through the normal select committees stages before its format and content is finalised and passed into law. Consequently the proposed changes may well be amended further by the time it becomes law. However employers do need to be aware of the proposals as it is likely that most of the major proposals within the Bill will be introduced in some form.
It is expected there will be considerable debate over the Bill particularly the following two areas.
- How and who will determine whether stress and fatigue experience by an employee is work related rather than as a result of the home or lifestyle choices
- What will be the requirements/constraints imposed on work force Health and Safety representatives for the issuing of notices to employees? The proposal to allow representatives to issue such notices raises a number of concerns. Obviously employers will need to ensure representatives have a full understanding of the Health and Safety in Employment Act and its implications and implementation in the workplace. They will also need to have a reasonable understanding of the business processes particularly in higher risk areas (factories, plant, and heavy machinery).
It will therefore be important for employers to ensure representatives are capable and responsible employees who have a common sense approach to health and safety issues.
Employers who are proactive with workplace Health and Safety programmes and training and who have a very good safety record should not see great change following the eventual introduction of the amendment to the Act.
However if health and safety is regarded somewhat flippantly then be aware. It is incumbent on all employers to implement appropriate Health and Safety programmes within the workplace to ensure the safety and health of its workers and the public.
Good health and safety practices can lead to improved performance and better bottom line results.
FORMS
We have introduced additional documents to our 'Forms" section (subscriber access only) including among others: A Job Description Form, Interviewing Tips, HSE Policy Statement, and a Bargaining Code of Conduct. We plan to continue introducing further documents over the next month, bringing the total number of forms to approximately 125-130 in total in addition to the HR Policies and summaries of the Employment related Acts.
