Victorian Workplace Manslaughter Laws

Victorian businesses and employers! Victoria’s new manslaughter laws are set to come into operation from the 1st of July. The bill amending the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 was passed late in 2019 and created the new criminal offence of workplace manslaughter (also known as ‘Industrial Manslaughter’) as well as providing for the establishment of the Workplace Incidents Consultative Committee. This followed the introduction of a similar offence in Queensland.

These offences carry severe penalties and should serve to deter and punish those who are negligent and fall short of their OHS expectations.  

Application

As specified, this offence will apply to organisations (including bodies corporate, partnerships, unincorporated bodies and unincorporated associations) as well as self-employed persons and officers.

It is clear that this offence is intended to be broadly applicable and protect many Victorian workers.

Conduct

To constitute a relevant breach, a person who is an officer of an applicable entity (not a volunteer) must not engage in conduct that either:

o   causes the death of a worker or member of the public; or,

o   involves a breach of an OHS duty; or,

o   is negligent.

The legislation also specifies that liability can apply to an act or an omission, meaning that organisations need to be vigilant of both action and inaction that may lead to liability for workplace manslaughter.

Importantly, it is also specified that liability may result whether any of the body corporate's officers were involved in all or any part of the conduct.

This adds extra pressure on officers and organisations to make sure that their conduct and treatment of workers does not fall short of the expected standards.

Penalties

For bodies corporate, including businesses, associations, and partnerships), found guilty of workplace manslaughter, they could face fines of up to 16.5 million dollars.

For individuals found guilty (though not including volunteers), a term of up to 20 years of imprisonment may be the consequence.  

Recommendations

For labour hire organisations, it is important to note that shared responsibilities still exist and that you are not exempt from culpability with regards to clients and companies in which labour is placed.

WorkSafe Victoria strongly reminded labour hire agencies that they share responsibility for the safety on contractors on host client sites. Although a labour hire agency does not have control over the operations and safety controls of the site, they do have control over whether the contractor works there in the first place. Labour Hire Agencies MUST be conducting safety assessments of host client sites as a part of that.

Recruitment consultants conducting basic safety checks on the new clients can assist with this but is highly flawed as most are untrained in safety, treat is as a tick box exercise and have a conflict of interest in the placement of the candidate.

The iSafe Program provides independent, knowledgeable and cost-effective safety assessments of host client sites. With a library of over 4000 reports across 1500 host clients in Australia, the iSafe Program has highly experienced safety professionals to assess client sites and provide you with a comprehensive report of the risks of placement.

Contact us to find out more.