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Issue No. 309 | 02 June 2006 |
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When the Truth Hurts
Interview: Rock Solid Industrial: Eight Simple Rules for Employing My Teenage Daughter Politics: The Johnnie Code Energy: Fission Fantasies History: All The Way With Clarrie O'Shea International: Closer to Home Economics: Taking the Fizz Unions: Stronger Together Review: Montezuma's Revenge Poetry: Fair Go Gone
The Soapbox The Locker Room Parliament Education
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News You're Killing Us - BHP Charged Again
The South Australian Industrial Relations Court laid the counts, less than a year after an independent inquiry warned the minerals giant its AWA-based strategy impacted on safety standards. Perth lawyer, Mark Ritter, found BHP's use of individual contracts was a "factor which has impacted and continues to impact on the successful implementation of safety systems". He was reporting, to the WA government, on the circumstances of three deaths at BHP Pilbarra facilities in the space of a couple of months. Workers Online understands BHP is also likely to face charges over those deaths. WA authorities said, last year, they would lay four charges over the death of AMWU member, James Wadley, in a horrific gas explosion. Subsequently, the fianc� of former union delegate, Corey Bentley, killed at the Nelson Port iron ore refinery, filed papers suing BHP Billiton for negligence. Last week's, South Australian IRC announcement over the death of 38-year-old, Karl Eibi, provoked a storm of protest from family, unions and politician. If found guilty, Australia's largest company would face maximum fines of $100,000 on each count. Eibi's father, Max, told a South Australian newspaper his sone told him, three weeks before his death, he would have been safer in Iraq than working for BHP Billiton. AWU state secretary Wayne Hanson labelled sentencing options a "joke" and called for an urgent review of the state's Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act. He said fines were not good enough, when negligence was found to have cost lives. Independent MLC Nick Xenophon labelled the penalty regime "woefully inadequate". He called for a parliamentary inquiry into how workplace deaths were investigated.
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