REMOVING the requirement under Queensland work health and safety laws for unions to notify an employer before entering a workplace would create an environment ‘rife for misuse of entry privileges’, AREEA has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Yesterday AREEA was invited to appear at a hearing for the Queensland parliament’s Inquiry into the Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, where AREEA reiterated concerns outlined in its submission on behalf of resource employers.
The Bill proposes to reverse the previous Newman LNP Government’s amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) that took effect in May 2014. In particular, the Bill proposes to overturn a provision requiring union permit holders to give at least 24 hours’ notice to enter Qld workplaces to investigate alleged safety breaches.
“AREEA supports a well-resourced inspectorate exercising appropriate powers to investigate alleged safety breaches rather than allowing unions untrammelled access to worksites,” AREEA’s written and verbal submissions emphasised.
AREEA told the committee that while unions had a role to play in workplace safety, that role was not in the immediate “triage” of incidents without appropriate notification.
AREEA also noted that Western Australia would abstain from the same right of entry provisions proposed in the Qld Bill.
AREEA’s other main concern with the Qld Bill was the proposed reinstatement of the power of elected health and safety representatives to order work to cease on the grounds of an imminent risk to health or safety.
While elected health and safety reps had a role in advising and consulting with members of their work group over safety issues, they should not be empowered to order work to cease, AREEA emphasised to the committee.
The potential for such powers to be used for industrial purposes is obvious and well-documented.
AREEA maintains that the common law right for individuals to stop work if there is an imminent risk to health or safety is adequate to protect their health and wellbeing, and ensures that everyone at the workplace takes responsibility for health and safety.
“Our members have made a sustained cultural effort over many years to create an environment where all employees notify, identify and assess risks and threats and act on them immediately, and we are concerned that the changes proposed in this Bill will undermine that and create a culture of leaving it to someone else,” AREEA says.
AREEA notes that the changes implemented to the Work Health & Safety Act in Qld by the former state government followed a wide-ranging review that identified major problems being experienced by employers under the former legislation.
The inquiry will report on the Bill on 6 July 2015.
Click here to read AREEA’s full submission to inquiry.
For more information on AREEA’s appearance at the public hearing, contact AREEA senior workplace policy adviser Lisa Matthews on (03) 6270 2256 or [email protected].
