Law reforms to create an offence of industrial manslaughter in NSW will bring the state into line with other jurisdictions and see individual and corporate employers face up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $20 million for worker deaths.
In response to the changes, to be implemented once a bill passes through Parliament, a new unit with the NSW office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will be created to focus on pursuing accountability where an employee dies due to gross negligence at work.
In a joint statement, Attorney General Michael Daley and Minister for Work Health and Safety Sophie Cotsis said the new bill highlights the importance of continuing WHS reforms.
“Any workplace death is a tragedy and in cases where a person with a work health and safety duty has been careless or irresponsible, they must be held accountable,” Cotsis said.
“The offence of industrial manslaughter will apply to the worst of the worst cases where gross negligence has caused the death of a person in a workplace.”
NSW is the final mainland state in Australia to not have an industrial manslaughter offence.
The highest maximum penalty under current laws (WHS Act – Category 1) is five years’ imprisonment for an individual, and a $3.8 million fine for corporate entities.
The NSW government said the process to develop the new laws involved wide consultation across the community, including work health and safety experts, business groups, unions, legal stakeholders, and families of people who have been killed at work.
The Attorney General noted the “significant maximum penalties” for the new offence would underscore for employers the importance of being proactive in meeting work health and safety obligations to provide a safe work environment.
“We plan to strengthen existing laws with a new industrial manslaughter offence, to act as a further deterrent to unsafe work practices and to send a clear message that people who place workers’ lives at risk will be held to account,” Daley said.
This article was first published by The Mandarin.
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News editor
Melissa Coade is The Mandarin’s news editor based in Canberra’s parliamentary press gallery. She has had various government, communications and legal roles, and has written for the Law Society of NSW journal (LSJ) and Lawyers Weekly.
