Work Safety

Economics & Deregulation / Work Reform and Productivity Unit / Work Safety

Principles of Work Safety

What are the basic principles of work safety in law and in practise? Ken Phillips surveys the need for a coherant approach, in Workplace Health and Safety. For more information see:

Presuming Employer Guilt: The damaging state of work safety and compensation laws in Australia

IPA Submission to the New South Wales Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000

Work Safety Laws are one-sided and unjust

Guilty until proved innocent

Case Study: Worksplaces Deaths, NSW

The NSW government recently passed OHS Deaths Bill, a bill which violates basic principles of procedural justice and fairness. As a result of its passage,any managers of any business in NSW now run high risk of being jailed. Ken Phillips analyses its consequences.

Work Safety and the Gretley Mine Disaster

The Politics of a Tragedy: The Gretley Mine Disaster and the Dangerous State of work safety laws in NSW
by Ken Phillips
The failure to prosecute either the Department of Minerals Resources or the company that employed three of the miners after the 1996 Gretley Mine disaster raises serious questions about the integrity of the occupational health and safety system in New South Wales and the use of the powers of criminal prosecution under the system.

The design of NSW OHS legislation is deeply flawed. It creates dangerous work cultures in NSW because it is based on a presumption of guilt for some parties and minimal application of liability for others.

Return to Work Reform and Productivity Unit