SIA compares WorkChoices to asbestos

WorkChoices poses the "biggest threat to the safety of Australian workers since asbestos", the body representing Victoria's workplace safety professionals said yesterday.

Safety Institute of Australia Victorian vice-president, Kevin Jones said it was "undeniable" that the new federal industrial system had a negative effect on occupational health and safety.

"WorkChoices is opening a Pandora's box of new health problems stemming from stress and high workloads," Jones said. "It's the greatest threat to workers' health since asbestos because it harms people from all walks of life in such an insidious way "” millions of Australians will suffer its potentially devastating effects."

Stress-related injuries make up a growing proportion of the 30,000 or so workers compensation claims filed in Victoria each year, amounting to almost $134 million according to the Victorian WorkCover Authority.

Stress-related claims are traditionally more complex to manage and, on average, cause the longest absences from work. Roughly double the amount of compensation is paid to workers suffering from stress than those with physical injuries.

"The "flexibility' WorkChoices boasts means many Australians often don't know from week to week which hours they'll be working and we think it will also translate to longer working weeks. That puts working parents under enormous pressure," Jones said.

"The economic pressures on individuals and family members encourage people to "cash in' annual leave, which will lead to huge numbers of exhausted, stressed working Australians."

Jones said commenting on industrial relations policy was an unprecedented step for the Safety Institute of Australia's Victorian division.

"As the voice of OHS professionals, SIA Victoria feels it has a duty to speak up and call attention to the threats that elements of the new industrial relations system pose. And it's not just the workers and their families who will suffer either "” employers can expect productivity to fall as a result of rising absenteeism and presenteeism," he said.

The challenges facing workplace safety will be the feature of day one of the three-day Safety In Action Conference. The conference runs from 20-22 March at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.