OHS REPS @ WORK

10 July 2003

Simon Cocker, CPSU Tasmanian Regional Secretary and an ACTU nominated Commissioner on the Comcare Board told SafetyNet that some of the changes to the Commonwealth OHS Act proposed by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott would lead to a reduction in health and safety for thousands of workers in the public sector.

The Occupational Health And Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991 covers Commonwealth employees in departments, statutory authorities and government business enterprises (for example Telstra).

For several years the Howard Federal Government has tried to amend the Act in ways similar to the changes introduced by the Kennett Liberal Government in Victoria in 1992. So far, the Government has not been able to get the amendments through the Senate. Last week, the Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Abbott, re-introduced the Bill into Parliament. The public sector unions are very unhappy with the proposed amendments, and SafetyNet spoke to Simon Cocker, Tasmanian Regional Secretary and a member of the Comcare Commission. According to Simon, there are three parts to the Bill:

1 - A number of amendments to address faults and problems with the Act. The unions have no concerns with any of these changes which are all reasonable and logical.

2 - Significant changes to the penalty and enforcement regime, including the removal of the shield of the Crown for Government employees, and allow Comcare to initiate civil prosecutions. While the unions welcome this move, they have a concern that only individuals can be charged, not organizations, and this may lead to middle management people ending up the scapegoat.

3 - Amendments seeking to exclude the public sector unions from health and safety. The unions have been vehemently opposed to this. Currently, the employer must consult the union/s on the OHS policy and the establishment of Designated Work Groups. The union/s also have a central role in the process to elect the OHS reps, who then have the right to ask the union to assist them in OHS matters. The Bill also proposes that union officials would have to secure a one year permit, to be issued by a Comcare officer, before being allowed to respond to requests for assistance from OHS reps. The CPSU and other public sector unions believe the current arrangements work well, and they have a number of good agreements in place.

The last time the Bill was tabled, the CPSU worked very hard against it, knocking on the doors of all the non-government senators. They got a commitment from all of them that they would oppose the de-unionisation the Bill was attempting to introduce. The unions do not believe that the Senate will pass the Bill this time, either, but there are questions as to why the Government has again tabled it at this time.