IR laws may hurt workplace health and safety

The ACTU has called on the Howard Government to retract the sections of its Industrial Relations laws which ban workplace agreements from giving workers leave to attend union-provided Health and Safety training or meetings.

Greg Combet said that the Employment Minister Kevin Andrews is wrong to say that Health and Safety regulation is wholly a matter for State and Territory governments and the Howard Government's WorkChoices IR laws ban workplace agreements from mandating that Health and Safety training can be provided by a trade union.

"Thousands of Australian workers in almost every industry receive Health and Safety training by unions every year.

"It is a fact that in the last two years alone, NSW unions have trained 20,000 workers in Occupational Health and Safety with access to the training specifically provided under the trade union training leave clauses that are in Awards and Agreements.

"It is essential that Australian workers continue to have access to Health and Safety and other training that unions provide.

"I call on the Prime Minister to intervene and repeal the ban in the new WorkChoices legislation on union training in Workplace Agreements on union training in Workplace Agreements," Combet said.