THE Greens' policy to reintroduce industrial manslaughter in Victoria will take workplaces back to the 1970s, employers warn.
The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry said if the Greens policies were adopted, laws would become all about blaming the boss.
"Under the Greens industrial relations policies, we will go back to the bad old days of the 1970s, and the workplace will be like a scene from I'm All Right Jack, manager of VECCI workplace relations Alexandra Marriott told The Australian.
"By introducing an industrial manslaughter offence on top of these laws, the co-operation element will go and it will be all about blaming the boss for everything."
The Greens plan, if adopted, would also put Victoria at odds with Julia Gillard's efforts to harmonise Occupational Health and Safety Laws throughout Australia. Canberra is already locked in a bitter feud with NSW to push the national reforms through.
The Prime Minister has based her national model on Victoria's current occupational health and safety regime.
Ms Marriott said the current laws in Victoria were tough enough and the Greens policies threatened improvements made to workplaces. "The progress we have made in the workplace will be unravelled. While current Victorian OHS laws are tough, they make both employers and employees responsible for safety by working together."
Ms Marriott said she also had concerns about Greens plans to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner. "By doing this, they risk ignoring the allegations of criminality and intimidation in the building and construction sector," she said.
The Greens have also come under fire in the final week of the state election campaign for wanting to introduce a 30km/h speed limit in inner-city suburbs and disendorsing a candidate who publicly challenged the wisdom of shutting down the Hazelwood power station within four years.
Upper house Greens MP Sue Pennicuik defended Greens industrial relations policies, saying the criminal charge of industrial manslaughter would apply to employers only in rare cases.
"If there is gross negligence and gross recklessness on the part of the employer, you can kind of compare it to culpable driving," she said. "At the moment, where there is wilful neglect and negligence, there is nothing to deal with it."
Ms Pennicuik said it was employers' duty to provide a safe workplace and similar laws existed successfully in Britain and the ACT.