An upcoming review of South Australia's mirror WHS Act will focus on how often union officials have used their new workplace entry rights, as required by a deal made with "no pokies" MLC John Darley two years ago.
Employers should embrace rather than oppose safety-related union entry rights, because officials usually enforce the safety standards mandated by company policies, a union leader has said in response to Queensland's new WHS changes.
The Victorian Labor Party has made it clear that it won't introduce a mirror WHS Bill if it wins the next State election, while a leading OHS lawyer has called for the harmonisation "farce" to be scrapped and replaced with uniform laws.
Queensland's WHS Amendment Bill has passed through Parliament, with the Bill's architect - the Attorney-General - repeating his seemingly incongruous boast that work injury rates are falling under the current laws. Meanwhile, Safe Work Australia is keeping tight-lipped on its position on the Queensland changes.
A Parliamentary Committee recommends passing Queensland's WHS Amendment Bill, which aims to make regulators the "first port of call" for workers with safety concerns by reducing the powers of HSRs and unions, but it says employers will have to pay for additional inspectors.
Queensland health and safety reps will be forbidden from halting unsafe work, unions will be hobbled by tighter entry rules, and maximum fines for electrical safety breaches will be 650 per cent higher, under a Bill introduced to the Queensland Parliament yesterday.
State and territory OHS laws can "operate interactively" with the Fair Work Act without undermining the Commonwealth's power to make industrial laws, the Federal Court has confirmed in ruling against an employer in a safety-related entry dispute.
Employers are again being urged to ask visiting workplace health and safety inspectors for identification, after two people who weren't inspectors threatened to fine companies and workers for breaching the WHS Act in South Australia last week.
