Ask Neale Tool of the Week News Shaw Sets Safety Guidelines NSW Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Jeff Shaw, QC has introduced a sentencing guidelines bill for breaches of workplace safety. Bill 2000 will enable the Attorney General to apply to the Full Bench of the Industrial Relations Commission in court session at any time to ask for a guideline judgement. Shaw says the sentencing guidelines help ensure consistency in sentencing decisions. The Attorney General will have the power to request that the Industrial Relations consider a sentencing guideline, he or she will not have the power to order the Commission. The distinction is crucial to ensuring that the fundamental principle of the separation of powers is retained.
Workplace safety is an issue which is increasingly concerning the community.
Offenders are being prosecuted vigorously and are paying with heavy penalties. The guidelines are in line with the recommendations of a number of occupational health and safety inquiries, the most recent being the Parliamentary Inquiry into Workplace Safety. Employees of the defendant were altering the width of a concrete paving machine when it collapsed, killing an employee. A foreman had told his supervisor in May,1994 and his maintenance manager in June 1996 about the lack of adequate instructions for using the machine. The Court heard that Abigroup had not conducted a risk analysis before the accident or documented the necessary guidelines for altering the machine.