Legal consequences of safety failings

A number of major workplace health and safety cases will be before Victorian courts in April as WorkSafe ramps up its campaign to reduce preventable deaths and injuries.

WorkSafe’s Legal Services and Investigations Division Director, Stan Krpan, said that while penalties for serious breaches of safety laws now exceeded one million dollars, he was still concerned many people did not take their obligations seriously: “With Victoria’s work-related death toll now standing at 11 for the year and serious injuries occurring daily, WorkSafe is taking a rigorous approach to enforcement, particularly in cases where the failings were obvious and easily fixable. We are not backing down from our core responsibility to the community to administer and enforce Victoria’s safety laws.”

Three of the seven cases in court involve fatalities, another resulted in a man suffering brain damage and in another, a man lost all the toes on one foot. Two men are charged with intimidating a WorkSafe inspector and a company has been charged with having inadequate guarding on a machine even though no one was hurt. All the matters involve serious allegations that will now be tested in the courts.

Krpan said despite years of WorkSafe advertising and its high community profile, many people still apparently believed they couldn’t be touched by a workplace tragedy: “The reality is that many people make a commercial or personal decision not to do what the law requires — and that is to work in a safe way and provide and maintain a safe workplace as far as is reasonably practicable.

“This doesn’t mean you have to eliminate any chance of something ever happening, but you must be able to demonstrate that you’ve done as much as you can. It’s not enough to just say to your people ‘be careful’ or rely on the fact that they’re skilled or experienced or hope for the best. You have to anticipate the known or predictable hazards in your industry — including the human ones — and deal with them.

“We’re tired of hearing in court that great efforts have been made to improve safety at a defendant’s business after a terrible event. With the pressure on business in an economic downturn, it’s important that businesses aren’t tempted to cut corners. Many small businesses don’t survive the ordeal that comes with a traumatic incident with the legal processes that can follow. It is possible to avoid this by taking a long-term view when making decisions on maintenance, capital upgrades and safety generally.

“Apart from dreadful human consequences, [and] the average fine around $47,000, along with legal costs, the potential for civil action by an injured person or the surviving family of someone who has died puts many organisations and individuals under enormous pressure.

“Companies seeking contractors increasingly look at the health and safety record of others that want to work with them. If they’ve got a conviction or a poor record, they might well go to your competitor, creating further commercial pressure.”