Health and safety regulation means economic advantages - Worksafe
Occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation can mean general economic advantages, the head of Australia's OHS watchdog, Worksafe Australia, declared today.
Chief executive Dr Ted Emmett was speaking at an Institute of Public Affairs conference in Sydney on risk, regulation and responsibility.
He stressed the need for workplaces to meet regulatory requirements: in the Australian context, management systems had not been shown as a suitable substitute.
"Some have claimed that regulations could be an intrusion of government into competition that undermines competitive advantage," he said.
"Instead, for safety standards, the reverse could be true in many circumstances."
Dr Emmett quoted Michael Porter, author of The Competitive Advantage of Nations, who concluded about product and safety standards that "tough standards combined with an effective process of enforcement represent the best combination for national advantage."
"This is not to say that individual regulations cannot be ineffective and costly. But, taken as a whole, OHS regulation can be a most effective tool which can convey general advantages to an economy," he said.
In the case of OHS, economic and other values might intersect. For example, by failing to invest in preventing injuries and diseases, an employer might be able to undersell competitors and put them out of business.
This could cause injury to employees who had not been warned about workplace hazards. At the same time, much of the cost of the injuries could be passed on to the government and the taxpayer.
"In this example, a number of community values are violated," said Dr Emmett.
He told the conference that regulation was a means to put various values of the community into practical effect -- and thereby, to the extent possible, establish a level playing field for industry and workers, and provide acceptable OHS outcomes.
"It brings into play another belief system: a belief in complying with the law. In OHS, we are dealing with important social problems and community values in an area where private decision-making simply does not work."
Dr Emmett added: "There can be no doubt that we have had outmoded, restrictive and unnecessary regulations in the past and that regulation is but one part of our armamentarium in improving OHS. But we must also be careful in reform to realise that our the real enemy is not regulation itself but the injuries, disease and death Australia wished to eliminate.
"I firmly believe that our regulatory reform is best practice. In time, that will be able to be judged, just as we can now judge the successes and failures of the 1940s. At that time, history will provide an unforgiving assessment."
The challenge was to judge when regulation was needed; when not to regulate unnecessarily; but also not to leave it too late. Regulation leads to dramatic drop in black lung disease -- but asbestos escapes net
Regulation leads to dramatic drop in black lung disease - but asbestos escapes net
Had Australia made any progress at all in what Dr Emmett described as this dismal subject? He cited the putting into place of strict standards by the NSW Joint Coal Board in 1943 to deal with coal dust and other hazards, helping to reduce the miners' disease, pneumoconiosis, or so-called black lung.
At that time, about one-third of all miners had the disease. But tracking it by means of epidemiological studies, which were put in place, showed that it was rare by 1960 --- and virtually eliminated by the late 80s.
By stark contrast, in the United States, which did not have controls until 1969, a reduction in black lung was not seen until the mid-70s. It had yet to be eliminated.
"As a consequence, US compensation payments for coal-workers' pneumoconiosis from 1980-91 totalled $2.6 billion. Compensation in Australia over the same period was $5 million," Dr Emmett explained.
"In developing countries such as China where mining practices are poorly controlled, they still have much lung disease and a much higher death rates than in Australia or the USA. Thus we can prove that OHS regulation and compliance can produce dramatic results and can work in Australia."
Another example was asbestos: failure to regulate against it led to the "painful and miserable" deaths of some 15,000 Australians.
"To have regulated at that time [1943] would have required the wise application of the precautionary principle", said Dr Emmett.
It was already known that asbestos was harmful. In fact, medical journals had linked asbestos to mesothelioma in the 1930s.
"Indeed, the Roman historian, Pliny, recorded that those working with asbestos should protect themselves by covering their faces with fish-bladder respirators."
13 July
Page last updated: 15/07/2008