As loved ones leave for work each morning – a family’s greatest fear is that they do not return home.
In the past 14 years, 242 people were fatally injured at work. Those deaths not only have a deeply crippling impact on the families of the deceased workers but also reveal an insidious attack on the fundamental premise of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
There is no amount of money that would ever be able to make up for the loss of life on a worksite…
The Labor party and the Union movement has fought for safer working conditions for workers. They have fought to ensure that as workers look to put food on the table, look to fight for a better life and look to contribute to our society and community through their labour – they are not putting their lives on the line in the process.
But this has not been enough. We need stronger deterrents so that employers do not cut corners or trade away safety precautions in search for greater profits.
In 2005 Industrial Manslaughter was recognised as a criminal act – it currently is not. Whilst employers may be held civilly liable for negligence there is no mechanism or criminal penalty for employers who negligently cause the death of a worker. Companies enjoy the benefits of legal personhood, except in matters of life and death –when their gross negligence and breach of a fundamental duty of care leads to the death of an employee, employers can bypass the criminal system in favour of a far more lenient civil system.
Not only would a change like this provide greater justice for those affected by the negligence of employers, but it would also act as a steadfast deterrent.
If we are serious about standing up for workers – fighting for fairness and creating safer working conditions for all, a future Labor Government in NSW needs to restore state-wide industrial manslaughter laws, whereby it is made a criminal offence where actions or omissions of employers conducting a business or undertaking cause a person’s death when those actions or omissions amount to a gross breach of a relevant duty or care owned by the employer to the deceased.
One life lost at a workplace is one too many.
Written by Geeth Geeganage, NSW Young Labor President.
