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| Issue No 98 |  |
01 June 2001 |
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NewsTwenty Grand – The Cost of a Life in 2001
Building workers have called on the Carr Government to introduce a new crime of "industrial manslaughter" after a builder was last week fined just $20,000 over the death of a 17-year-old apprentice. Affiliates to the NSW Labor Council last night backed the Construction Union's for a review of the Crimes Act, while expressing outrage at the decision by Chief Industrial Magistrate George Miller. John Poleviak pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of his employees, Dean McGoldrick, who fell 12 metres from a roof to his death on a building site in Broadway in February, 2000. An investigation found that the employer had provided no safety harness, no safety bar and no safety training. Yet the Court fined Pleviak just $20,000 - against a maximum fine of $250,000. In the wake of the decision, the Construction Union says there needed to be a specific crime of industrial manslaughter "against employers whose disregard for safety causes the death of a worker". Loophole Closes Common Law Rights A separate building site accident has prompted a call for changes to workers compensation legislation to protect the employees of companies that avoid their WorkCover premiums. Currently, a worker injured whose employer is avoiding premiums can not launch common law action against the employer. While there is protection of weekly benefits through the WorkCover Uninsured Workers Liability Scheme, there is no provisions for common law actions. The Construction Union has raised the call for review of the plight of uninsured workers in the wake of an accident in early May on a demolition site in Manly. David Clews, was seriously injured on the site, but has since discovered his employer Modern Demolition had no workers compensation policy. Hearing on Government Responsibilities And in another important Test Case, the Labor Council will intervene in a case to test whether the Carr Government is bound by its own health and safety laws. A Full Bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission is due to hear legal argument on June 1, raised by the Department of Public Workers over the operation of the Occupational health and Safety Act.. While trade unions have since raised the issue with Public Workers Minister Maurice Iemma and Industrial relations Minister John Della Bosca, the hearing will go ahead to establish the legal principle. "It appears a ludicrous proposition," the Labor Council's Michael Costa says. "If a major employer like the Crown is not covered, what point is there in having health and safety laws?"
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   Interview: Balancing the BooksOpposition Finance spokesman Lindsay Tanner on bringing a Labor agenda to managing the nation’s finances. Compo: Undampened SpiritsDespite atrocious weather, building workers took to the streets this work over the carnage in their workplace. Mark Hebblewhite was there. Unions: Giving BloodLocal government workers are mounting a campaign to have leave to give blood donations recognised in their award. Women: A Checklist for Women Voters With a mountain of demands on Australian working women, the biggest question could well be which is the biggest? History: May Day MeditationMay Day has been and gone, but we thought Peter Linebaugh’s take on its meaning was worth reading on all the other days too. International: The Weeks of Living Dangerously The now almost inevitable fall of Indonesia’s President Abdurrahman Wahid could have drastic consequences for the increasingly militant working class movement in that country. Economics: No More Mr Nice GuyIn his new book, Steven Keen outlines why the public needs to know that economics is intellectually unsound. Satire: NZ to be DisbandedFollowing the successful disbanding of the armed forces the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, has unveiled a new bold plan to total disband the entire nation. Review: Action in the HouseWorkers Online’s Big Brother Addict argues the time has come for the contestant’s to take some industrial action.
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