These deaths bring into sharp relief the contested issues surrounding the Federal Government's Review of OHS laws.
The view of the employers is that OHS should be all about the "softly softly" approach with fines low and no chance of employers hearing the clang of a gaol cell door from the inside, when workers are exposed to and suffer injuries, disease and death from work.
The CFMEU's position is that all workers deserve the highest possible standard OHS laws. Vigorously enforced by both well resourced state regulators and union representatives, unfettered by Howard's WorkChoices laws and his secret police force the ABCC, both of which are still in place at this time.
Recent research by WorkSafe Victoria has confirmed our organisers' anecdotal evidence that the ABCC is having a negative effect on Inspectors, both in terms of workplace visits and infringement notices issued. It turns out, they too do not want to be dragged in for a secret interrogation session with no right to silence, just like our members.
While in hazardous industries such as construction, forestry and mining, workplaces organised by the CFMEU are safer than non-union sites, a lot depends however on the rules and regulations that our members can enforce on the ground.
This Review presents us with an opportunity to make our OHS laws the best in the world and to take them out of interstate competition. If we fail to level up with uniformly strong OHS laws a once in a generation's chance will be lost and it will be workers who pay the ultimate price, with their health and their lives.
So what do CFMEU members deserve out of this Review?
- The right to a workplace where their employer must ensure their health and safety - no ifs and buts;
- The right to systems of work that promote health and safety and that give them a say in the design of work;
- The right to demand immediate employer action on emergent hazards at work with strong, easily enforceable rights to combat victimisation and discrimination for safety activism;
- The right to elect worker health and safety representatives with the power to direct work to stop where there is a need to make immediate changes to protect health and safety;
- Strong rights for union representatives with the power to immediately enter workplaces to deal with OHS issues, copy all relevant documents, gather video evidence of suspected breaches and to prosecute these if necessary, with real deterrents such as gaol sentences and fines levied on company turnover;
- The right to union run OHS training and education in paid time.
Workers and their families deserve no less.
John Sutton
23 June 2008
