5 key recommendations for work health and safety law

Safe Work Australia has released its Best Practice Review of the model Work Health and Safety laws, which paves the direction for future work health and safety (WHS) regulation.

While the Review’s recommendations will not necessarily become law in every state and territory, the main findings of the Review – that harmonisation has remained solid and contributed to a reduction in workplace fatalities – provide a basis for further areas of focus in safety regulation, particularly in:

artificial intelligence (AI) and digital systems, which will be monitored for opportunities to introduce regulation;
climate change, which will be a focus of new regulations around extreme heat, air quality and disease; and
workplace harassment, which remains a focus for regulation as well, including around use of facilities.

The Review made 21 recommendations across a broad range of issues. Some of the more immediate changes that may be introduced include:

Greater involvement by unions to initiate prosecutions, as has been adopted in New South Wales.
Ensuring all jurisdictions prohibit insurance or indemnity cover for legal costs for defending a WHS prosecution. Presently, the prohibition extends only to the penalty.
Prioritising the development of industry codes of practice, to give clearer guidance to persons conducting a business or undertaking who can then rely on them for compliance, including in the retail, agricultural and education sectors.
Updating the national prosecution guidelines to ensure consistency across the jurisdictions.
Undertaking a model regulation project to improve consistency and appropriately regulate modern work, workplaces and emerging hazards, and to set criteria for when regulation will be implemented.

The Review also identified a number of variations between jurisdictions, some of which are considered to be best practice. Safe Work Australia will consider those best practice variations with a view to implementing model laws for jurisdictions to implement uniformly.

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