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INDUSTRY NEWS
COMMISSION FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH 35TH ANNIVERSARY 1985-2020
This year, the Commission for Occupational Safety and Health (the Commission) proudly looks back on 35 successful years of improvements to worker safety for Western Australians.
Worker safety was re-prioritised in the hearts and minds of Western Australians when the new Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Amendment Act 1987 and Regulations 1988 were proclaimed.
Originally known as the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Commission, the group was established on 4 April 1985 with the inaugural meeting held on 29 April the same year.
After proclamation, 96 per cent of the State’s workforce was covered. For the first time hospitals, schools, offices, banks and the rural and public sectors had clear responsibilities to make workplaces safer.
The Commission was founded as a tripartite body with representatives from employer organisations, trade unions, expert representatives and the State Government. This structure continues today, with the Commission playing a lead role in informing and achieving the occupational health and safety legislative program.
These laws had a positive effect on reducing injury and disease to workers by introducing a statutory mechanism for the ‘general duty of care’ of employers and employees, and safety and health representatives and committees.
REVIEWS
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE ACT 1984 AND REGULATIONS 1988
As part of the Commission’s regulation review process, public comment was sought, resulting in the modernised Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996.
During the 1980’s, the Commission revised 21 sets of regulations into a single consolidated set of regulations.
Significant legislative reforms in 2005 introduced Provisional Improvement Notices (PINS) improved consultation mechanisms between employers, employees and extended the duties of care to include a broader scope such as labour hire.
Those repealed acts and regulations had covered just 40 per cent of the workforce.
| 24 | ThinkSafe vol. 2 no. 2 May 2020
