Modern laws close sliding doors Managing your TAFE workload:

During negotiations the number of HSRs for each work group must be determined. While no specific numbers of HSRs are stipulated in the Act or regulations the SSTUWA suggests a general rule of thumb is one HSR per 30 staff members.

The type of school/worksite, the curriculum delivery occurring and learning areas should be also considered in these negotiations; a secondary school with a Trade Training Centre, for example, will need potentially more HSRs than a small country school.

If SSTUWA members express to the Department of Education (DoE) that they want the SSTUWA involved in negotiations regarding work groups, then an SSTUWA organiser is available on request to assist. This request needs to be made to the school principal at the worksite.

Once negotiations are complete and if agreement is reached, the department must notify the workers of the outcome of the negotiations as soon as reasonably practicable.

Contact your SSTUWA organiser for more information on the HSR election process.

Education specific HSR training courses

The SSTUWA is running five-day introductory course available to elected HSRs who:

• Have registered with the DoE OSH

Team as the elected representative for your school by completing an election notification form.

• Have not previously completed the

Five-Day Introductory OSH/WHS

Course.

• Have written permission from DoE

Central Office OSH Team to attend the course in Perth if based in a regional area.

This newly developed course is a statutory requirement for elected HSRs and has been updated based on the new WHS Act, 2020. It provides HSRs within the DoE the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively perform their functions in protecting and promoting the work health and safety of those they represent.

Visit sstuwa.org.au/training for more information about the course.

Modern laws close

sliding doors By Owen Whittle Secretary, UnionsWA

The WA economy has always relied on some of the most hazardous industries in Australia – such as agriculture, construction, transport and resources. However, despite working people in WA being most at risk, up until late March, we’ve shamefully had the weakest workplace safety laws in the country.

This represents a sliding door moment – seemingly unimportant but in reality so – for nearly all 1.4 million working Western Australians. Nobody knows whose life will be saved by adopting the strongest workplace safety laws in the country. Maybe yours or someone you know?

What we do know is that these laws were a long time coming.

Sadly, misinformation has surrounded this law’s passage. Only a few weeks ago a prominent construction company boss was on radio quoting a legal provision that doesn’t exist in the law and claiming construction companies face penalties if drug affected workers caused an accident in the workplace. It’s the kind of fake news usually reserved for social media.

The truth is that for too long we have watched as prosecutions for horrific and preventable workplace fatalities have led to penalties of only a few 10s of thousands of dollars – well below community expectations and in many cases below the cost of implementing safety systems which would have saved those lives.

In advance of these laws the WA government raised penalties for safety breaches and it saw the highest ever safety penalty handed down against a WA government repeat offender – the Department of Corrective Services – which was fined $900,000 for a safety breach which resulted in serious and preventable injuries to a worker.

Importantly, our new laws and higher penalties have been backed up by a historic increase in funding for WorkSafe. There’s now more likely to be a cop on the safety beat than has been the case for decades. Much of the debate on these laws has been taken up by industrial manslaughter. That’s understandable. It’s important to recognise the commitment of family members of those whose lives were lost through work. They had to relive their trauma to be advocates. The coverage of these family members and their harrowing stories in the media also deserves acknowledgement.

However, there are other new provisions in the laws that will also make a difference. No longer must whistleblowers have to put their name to safety complaints and be fearful of workplace retribution for doing so. That’s important in an age of high job insecurity.

It sounds glib to say how important it is that elected workplace safety representatives are empowered, trained and consulted, but these are workplacelevel improvements that really matter.

The value of saving a life is self-evident, the flow-on effects of focusing on preventing workplace injuries is less obvious but also in the interests of all parties. While in the short term, consultation, training and ensuring adequate staffing and safe equipment is a current cost, it will lead to reduced workers’ compensation premiums and less workforce down-time in future. This doesn’t capture the headlines.

The acknowledgement in the Act – and under new codes – of workplace violence, bullying and mental health impacts, updates these laws. They also make workplaces more accessible for women and young people who are too often the subject of unacceptable workplace behaviours.

At the end of the working day, we all want to get home safely. With these new laws, working people and unionists that support them can rest a bit easier knowing that the sliding door moment will not see them end up as another horrific statistic that costs so much in so many ways.