A REGIONAL timber workers union leader has called for the establishment of an independent safety commissioner and mandatory coronial inquests into deaths at work.
The push comes after four forestry workers were killed near Penola two years ago and the death of a construction worker in Adelaide.
The coroner has yet to announce whether there will be an inquest into the deaths of Reece Wilkinson, 23, Steven Whitehead, 22, Chris Sylvester, 17 and Nick Roser, 28, who were tragically killed on their way to a plantation in a road accident.
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union South East secretary Brad Coates said the Penola road tragedy and a coronial inquest into a construction worker’s death in Adelaide demonstrated the need to strengthen laws surrounding workplace safety.
The union has released a raft of recommendations to be implemented, including the introduction of “industrial manslaughter” laws and for the Safework SA investigation unit to be disbanded.
The union instead wants to see investigative work undertaken by police.
“Workers have lost faith in the current system to enforce safety and compliance throughout workplaces,” Mr Coates said.
“It is almost two years since four young men tragically lost their lives in a workplace accident in the South East and the silence has been deafening in regards to results of investigations into four workplace deaths.”
He said Safework SA was quoted stating there was no evidence of any breaches of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 that warranted the “initiation of prosecution” against any party.
“This workplace tragedy where four people were killed should at the very least be investigated by a coronial inquest to give the families of the deceased some closure and this procedure should be mandatory for all deaths in the workplace,” Mr Coates said.
He claimed the fatigue management programs, trialled as a result of the 2016 accident, were only delivering modest improvements and there was still strong evidence of some employees still working long and unsafe hours in the harvesting and haulage section of the timber industry.
“Fatigue management programs were only as good as the agency appointed to monitor compliance and in this case Safework SA has a recent history of not being up to the task of enforcing compliance standards in workplaces in the state,” Mr Coates said.
“Self-regulation has proven to be a disaster in workplace safety.”
He said SafeWork SA had also failed to start any prosecutions or civil proceedings for breaches of workplace safety laws that did not result in injury or death and this “needs to stop”.
