ACTU petitions government on OHS amendments

The ACTU has an online petition calling on the government to introduce the highest standards of OHS through the harmonisation process currently under way. The petition calls for amendments to legislation to meet the minimum standards detailed in the ACTU OHS Charter.

In the petition, the ACTU states that OHS harmonisation is an enormous opportunity to get the best possible health and safety laws for Australian workers and is calling on the federal, state and territory parliaments, as well as the National OHS Law Review Panel, to amend legislation in all jurisdictions to meet the charter’s minimum standards.

The ACTU also stated that it opposed businesses swapping OHS and workers compensation schemes in an attempt to avoid their responsibilities and obligations and oppose any legislative instrument designed to allow scheme-swapping to occur.