Conclusion of talks labelled as “constructive”

The ASCC has pronounced the recent harmonisation talks on a national strategy for OHS to be "constructive".

Council Chair, Bill Scales said the role of the working groups to discuss OHS at a national level is vital, stressing the importance of having participation from each state and territory government, as well as employer and employee representatives.

Minister for Industrial Relations, John Della Bosca has a different version of events, stating that NSW only agreed to join the discussions after the Commonwealth "reluctantly" accepted the state's demands to include certain principles in the agenda.

"NSW was always willing to discuss harmonisation of workplace safety laws, but only on the understanding that we would not weaken standards," Della Bosca said. "After more than 30 minutes of debate, the Commonwealth accepted the NSW position that the principles be minuted and that they apply to the working group."

The meeting discussed issues such as COAG recommendations to improve the development and review of national OHS standards and codes of practice to identify priority areas in principal OHS Acts that should be harmonised.

Scales said other topics such as the review of national OHS standards and codes of practice in the areas of manual tasks, physical agents and plant, and the National Chemicals Framework were also raised.

Outcomes of discussions held at the harmonisation talks will be considered at the 15 August ASCC meeting.