Archived Industrial News: September 2008

Nurses need strong OHS laws

The ANF is calling for strong occupational health and safety (OHS) laws to protect nurses from workplace hazards in a submission to the committee reviewing national OHS laws.

Every Australian state and territory has its own OHS laws. The Commonwealth also has legislation mainly covering its own employees. All of these laws impose obligations on employers to ensure a healthy and safe workplace for their employees (and other workers such as contractors); allow workers to elect their own health and safety representatives (HSRs) with extensive powers to assist in representing their interests; and provide for a range of sanctions on employers who breach their duties.

While each system has the same basic elements, there are significant differences in the detail of the laws and how they work in practice. Some workers have better rights than others depending on which state or territory they work in.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decided in March this year that national harmonisation of OHS laws should occur and established a review panel to consider submissions from interested groups and the general public. The panel will make recommendations to federal and state ministers on the content of model laws to be adopted by each jurisdiction.

The ANF submission to the panel argues for strong OHS protection for nurses from hazards including stress, manual handling, needlestick injuries and blood borne diseases (the ANF submission is available at www.anf.org.au).

Unions are not opposed to harmonisation of OHS laws but the laws must lead to improvements in the health and safety of Australian workers. In any harmonisation process, there is a risk that the lowest common denominator will be chosen. If this occurred it would have dramatic negative effects on the health and safety of Australian workers. On the other hand, the review process provides an ideal opportunity to create the best possible OHS laws.

The ANF and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) submissions to the panel call for the model OHS laws to provide:

• the right of unions to enter workplaces and represent workers to ensure employers meet their legal responsibilities;
  
• a union right to prosecute, especially where the OHS regulator does not act;
  
• an absolute duty of care on employers to provide a healthy and safe workplace. In any prosecution for breach of OHS duties, the onus should be on the employer (not prosecution) to prove that it took all ‘reasonably practicable’ steps to ensure health and safety; and
  
• strong rights and protections for HSRs.
  

You can help ensure that Australian workers have the most effective laws for ensuring workers’ health and safety by:

• looking at the material on the ACTU website: http://www.actu.asn.au/OccupationalHealthSafety/default.aspx
  
• signing the Union Charter of Workplace OHS Rights petition and returning it to the ANF or ACTU;
  
• writing to MPs and Ministers in support of the ANF and ACTU submissions to the Review, and the Union Charter;
  
• talking to your family, friends and work colleagues about the issues; and
  
• holding workplace meetings with the involvement of your local job delegate, HSR and/or ANF branch.

Andrew McCarthy
ANF Federal Industrial Officer