Written by Robert Keft, 28 October 2019

Why Employers, Unions, Workers and Government all need to come together for one Cause, that is Work Health and Safety

I have observed over many years the tension between employers, unions, workers and government over many issues. They include typically remuneration, workplace conditions, work hours, productivity, workplace morale and business profitability to name a few.

However, for the life of me I cannot understand why work, health and safety is also targeted as an adversarial issue between the relevant workplace stakeholders.

I don’t believe any employer wants to put their workers in harm’s way or comes to work with the mindset that one of our people will be seriously injured and potentially die today. And if they do they are simply fools and should have the full force of the law come down upon them. There is no doubt that reckless conduct needs to be punished.

I say they are fools as not only will their businesses and potentially individuals be prosecuted but they will also ruin the reputation of their business and in many cases the businesses themselves will fold, exposing the numerous parties involved.

99% of the employers I talk with genuinely care for the health and safety of their workers. This doesn’t mean they always get it right. It just means that their intentions are normally good.

I have also talked with employers where one of their workers has been seriously injured or killed and they are absolutely distraught with regret and sorrow. They normally say “what could have I have done differently” or “I don’t understand why this has happened”. Sometimes they foolishly say “this has never happened in the past and I thought it just would never happen in the future”. As we know the past history of performance in any business area does not denote future business performance.

As such, my wish is that good Work, Health and Safety practices becomes a common aspiration for all key stakeholders in the workplace. It should never be used to bash one another with as other industrial relations issues are. After all, as human beings we should all care for one another to ensure all workers come home every single day to their loved ones exactly the same way they left for work that day. There is no exception to this rule. If there are people who don’t believe this they have no place in our workplaces.

So, does that mean that we should lift penalties for poor health and safety outcomes at work.

In my mind they should only be lifted for the most heinous acts of reckless behaviour.

The truth of the matter is that the employers that will pay the price if we do increase penalties are the owners of small and medium enterprises where the line of sight between the Directors of the business and the Workers involved is clear and they can be personally implicated.

In large corporations I can’t imagine the Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking will ever directly be prosecuted for a Category 1 offence or even a breach of Work Health and Safety regulations when their line of sight to the workers involved is so difficult to prove.

So will Industrial Manslaughter Laws see Directors or PCBU’s of large corporations charged. I very much doubt it in all sincerity. It is much more likely that the owners of small and medium enterprises will be subjected to these charges.

So doesn’t it make sense that we stop being so damn adversarial about Work, Health and Safety and try to bring all the relevant stakeholders together with the common cause to bring every work colleague home safely again tomorrow.

Last year in Australia alone, 183 workers did not come home to their loved ones. Many hearts are broken every year and many never recover.

Isn’t this enough of a reason to bring everyone together for this one most common cause.

As I often say in presentations “ Good Safety is just Good Business”.