Corporate lobby group Business SA has announced it has called on the State Government to defer the South Australian Work Health and Safety Bill 2011, saying more time must be taken to ensure that the state has ‘appropriate and workable’ legislation.

 

Business SA, which had previously reached an agreement with the State Government on amendments to the Bill addressing key concerns, said that the following is of particular concern to the group.

 

  • The legislation is overly complex and difficult to interpret, which is likely to result in poor compliance or even non-compliance, albeit unintentional.
  • The sheer volume and complexity of the proposed new codes of practice are unworkable. Some of the codes are up to 90 pages in length and the materials often do not reflect industry-relevant best practice.
  • The proposed new, complex scheme would create an ‘overload’ of paperwork and administrative requirements which do not equate to safer workplaces. In fact, safety practices could be directly undermined by the huge distraction that will be presented by this administrative overload.
  • Small business, which represents a large proportion of this State’s employers, would be forced to use already stretched management resources to meet compliance paperwork at the cost of actual time on site and on the shop floor directly supervising work place environments for the best safety outcomes.

 

“The new legislative scheme must be seen to clearly and directly support better safety outcomes, not just impose more serious sanctions and a greater compliance burden,” the group ‘s CEO, Nigel McBride, said in a statement to its members.

 

“We do not see this deferral as detrimental to workplace safety in South Australia. On the contrary, we are concerned that the introduction of overly complex legislation, to the point of being potentially unworkable, is likely to create a less safe workplace.”