WORKCHOICES and
Occupational Health and Safety

You and your family have the right to a safe and healthy work environment. You have the right to compensation and rehabilitation if you are injured at work.

Ben Kruse, USU General Secretary

Howard’s new laws

• attack your health and safety,
• seek to take away your rights and
• attempt to lower workplace health and
  safety standards.

These laws are an attack on Australian workers and their families.

Immediate threats to Health or Safety

In some circumstances, Howard’s laws define taking steps to protect your Health and Safety as ‘industrial action’.

• OHS law says you stop work if you believe something is
  an immediate threat or risk to you.
• Howard’s laws say you have to prove it. If you can’t prove
  it, you may have to go to Court to prove that any action you
  took over a health or safety issue was justified.
• You can lose at least 4 hour’s pay and be fined up
  to $6,600.

Training and OHS

• If you are an OHS Rep, you still have the right be trained.
  OHS training rights of other workers have been
  diminished.
• OHS Reps have a right to attend basic training, the
  employer has to allow them to, and Reps can choose who
  provides that training (after consultation with the employer).
• These Collective Agreement clauses that provide for
  union safety training have been prohibited. It is now more
  difficult for most workers to access union OHS training. OHS
  Reps still keep this right.

Conditions and OHS

Under Howard’s Laws any new Workplace Agreement will only have to contain 5 minimum conditions. This means things like meal breaks, length of shift and hours of work are up for grabs. These ‘conditions’ are there to protect your health and safety.

• Your OHS Act says that the employer must “provide
  a safe and healthy work environment and adequate
  facilities for your welfare” .
• Hours of work, meal breaks and length of shift have
  been negotiated by unions in your Collective Agreements.
• Howard’s Laws mean that these details no longer have to
  be included in a Collective Agreement.

Dismissal and Discrimination
While Howard’s Laws have removed unfair dismissal rights for many, he has not removed protection from discrimination. You can continue to fight for health and safety improvements at your workplace.

• Health and safety laws prohibit discrimination against
  employees who raise OHS issues, and this can be
  strengthened further.
• It is also illegal to sack a worker claiming Workers
  Compensation.

SOURCE: Howard's laws hurt your Health and Safety, ACTU. Download the full document here.