Company directors 'must face fines' for deaths
Date
April 27, 2015
Canberra Times
Negligent company directors would be held personally liable and face heavy penalties including jail when an employee is killed in the workplace, under major reforms being urged by trade unions.
As families of those killed in the workplace prepare for special ceremonies on Tuesday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions has unveiled a campaign to push for stronger occupational health and safety laws that will "send a clear message" to irresponsible employers.
In Melbourne, 20 pairs of work boots will be placed outside Victorian Trades Hall as part of International Workers' Memorial Day in memory of the 20 employees who died in the state's workplaces in less than 12 months.
Luke Hilakari, secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, said the act of laying out empty work boots across Lygon Street on Tuesday was to remember the dead and highlight the importance of fighting to better protect people's lives in the workplace.
He said a pair of babies' shoes would tragically be among the work boots, after a nine-month-old boy was killed by a forklift in an automotive workshop last December.
"The youngest to die in the workplace was nine months, the oldest was 79," Mr Hilakari said. "There have been a range of deaths across Australia and these are still huge numbers."
On Tuesday, the ACTU will call on the federal government for reforms that make negligent company directors personally liable for fines and up to 20 years' jail in a bid to ensure companies cannot restructure to avoid penalties.
"Forty-eight Australians have died at work in the past year because their employer didn't take their safety at work seriously enough," ACTU assistant secretary Michael Borowick said.
"We need to change that. Current laws need to be strengthened so that companies and company directors are liable for our safety at work."
But the Australian Industry Group (AiG) said the unions' push ignored the fact that company directors could already be held liable by existing laws that "provide the proper balance" between corporate and individual responsibility.
"The strength of Australia's safety laws and their impact in our workplaces has resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in the rate of workplace fatalities in the past decade – a much better record than other advanced countries," AiG spokesman Mark Goodsell said.
Victorian Finance Minister Robin Scott will join Mr Hilakari to lead the Trades Hall ceremony as a gesture of condolence to the families left behind by workplace deaths.
Mr Scott said workplace accidents did not discriminate. "While workers in Victoria are safer than they have ever been, too many are still being killed or seriously injured at work."
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Company Directors Must Face Fines For Deaths (Read 571 times)
