Regulating Workplace Safety without using a Big Stick
The Chair of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC), Professor Dennis Else, today called on businesses to capitalise on the benefits of setting up their own workplace safety systems rather than wait for penalties for accidents.
Speaking at the launch at NOHSC of a new book on workplace safety, Professor Else said, "Business can protect its most important resource, its people, by establishing safety management systems that are put into practice in the workplace and continuously improved and benchmarked."
The authors of Regulating Workplace Safety: Systems and Sanctions, Neil Gunningham, Professor of Law at the Australian National University, and Associate Professor Richard Johnstone of the T C Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland, draw on Australian and international experience in arguing it is crucial for regulators to keep up with, and ideally stay ahead of, developments in the workplace.
"A shift away from traditional manufacturing, the growth of sub-contracting and small businesses, and a range of previously unknown health issues have challenged traditional regulation and regulators," Professor Gunningham said.
Professor Else said: "Regulators need to be innovative in the using the wide range of strategies available to them for influencing OHS performance in Australian business. This will usually achieve far more than just using a big stick."
NOHSC aims to support safe and healthy workplaces throughout Australia by building and sharing knowledge to help reduce workplace injury and disease. Its members represent all Australian Governments, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
Media contacts:
- Elizabeth Dixon, ph: (02) 9577 9424
- Alan Valvasori, ph: (02) 9577 9249
16 December 1999
Page last updated: 10/07/2008