Labor not doing enough for work safety

Issue 

By Russell McGilton

MELBOURNE — When you have that feeling that maybe you shouldn't go to work today, perhaps you should act on it. You could save a limb or even your life.

Jason Carter would most likely agree. The 19-year-old apprentice had his hands flattened to a fraction of a millimetre by a sheet metal press last year, but could not sue his employer due to the former Liberal state government removing employees' common law right to do so.

In New South Wales, four miners died on November 24 when a sudden blast of air collapsed a shaft in the North Parkes gold and copper mine. Last year, two men died and eight were injured during the Esso Longford gas explosion. The Victorian WorkCover Authority has charged Esso with 45 breaches of health and safety laws, while four law firms have started a $1.3 billion class action against the company for losses suffered by gas users.

These tragic stories are those of just some of the 3000 people who die each year from work-related causes, yet governments spend far less on workplace safety than road safety campaigns.

Liz Mobayad, of Industrial Deaths Support and Advocacy, an organisation of those who have suffered an industry-related loss of a loved one, says that the new Labor state government in Victoria is not doing enough to protect workers.

After meeting with the minister for industrial relations, Bob Cameron, she says that promises made before the election to bring back common law rights, allocate more occupational health and safety inspectors, and reform the abysmal performance of WorkCover seem to have all but evaporated. "He was very non-committal", Mobayad told Green Left Weekly. "We're just going to wait and see what happens at the next autumn session of parliament."

The only positive move that the Labor government has made so far, she said, "was to oust the managing director of WorkCover, Andrew Lindburgh, who was 'invited to leave'".

Whether the Steve Bracks government will make good on promises to workers is yet to be seen, but in the wake of his endorsement of the Melbourne Grand Prix, signs are not good.

On November 26, another worker was injured on a construction site, his pelvis crushed when a steel slab which was being transported by crane fell. He only narrowly escaped death.

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