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A Global risk management provider warns that delegating accountability for workplace safety will not be sufficient defence for board members and C-Suite Executives under new industrial manslaughter laws across Australia.
Instead, company directors must be actively and directly involved in the establishment and review of, and training around, workplace safety systems, to reduce their risk of personal liability and prosecution in case of a workplace fatality. The most effective method of ensuring compliance with the new laws is certification to the latest international occupational health and safety standards.
SAI Global has audited, certified and training thousands of organisations seeking to meet the international ISO 45001 standard for occupational health and safety, in addition to Federal and State workplace health and safety legislation. SAI Global workplace safety expert Kiran Bhagat says, “Industrial manslaughter laws legislated in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT place legal liability squarely at the feet of the C-suite and company directors for industrial manslaughter. Organisations must ensure their compliance to OHS laws is over and above current standards and, besides, aim to meet and exceed international standards as a safeguard. The highest-ranking leaders in an organisation must be proactively involved in the processes.”