• 2 hours ago
Industrial manslaughter is now criminalised in every jurisdiction. But there are many differences across states and territories in the way industrial manslaughter cases are heard and punished. Across each state and territory, individuals could face anything from 20 years to life in prison, while corporations could be hit with between $10 million to $20 million in fines.
Transcript
00:00Industrial manslaughter occurs when a business recklessly or negligently
00:04fails to ensure the safety of its workers or consumers and that negligence
00:09then leads to death. Legal tests differ across jurisdictions but at its core a
00:14company commits industrial manslaughter when a death is found to have been
00:17caused by the company breaching its duty of care under their workplace health
00:22and safety requirement. Industrial manslaughter is now criminalized in
00:26every jurisdiction but there are many differences across states and territories
00:30in the way that industrial manslaughter cases are heard and punished. Across each
00:35state and territory individuals could face anything from 20 years to life in
00:40prison while corporations could be hit with between 10 million to 20 million
00:44dollars in fines. Tasmania was the last to criminalize industrial manslaughter
00:50bringing its laws into force in late 2024. New South Wales was also slow to
00:56criminalize industrial manslaughter with a bill before Parliament in June
01:002024. By contrast ACT was the first jurisdiction to criminalize industrial
01:05manslaughter making an offence in 2004. Industrial manslaughter laws were
01:11introduced to South Australia in 2023 and brought into force a year later. In
01:17Queensland industrial manslaughter has been an offence since 2017. It was the
01:22first jurisdiction to record a conviction against both a body
01:25corporate and an individual. In 2020 a recycling company was fined three
01:30million dollars and its directors were sentenced to 10 months suspended
01:34imprisonment sentence. It was found that the death of a worker was caused by an
01:39unlicensed forklift driver and the company was found to have no
01:42appropriate traffic management safety systems in place at the time of the
01:46accident. Then in a separate case in 2022 an individual was sentenced to five
01:52years in prison after it was found that he had negligently caused the death of a
01:57worker who was crashed by a generator that fell from a moving forklift. The
02:02heaviest penalties for individuals including potentially life imprisonment
02:06were introduced into the Northern Territory in 2020. Since then NT WorkSafe
02:12has successfully prosecuted two industrial manslaughter cases. In August
02:172024 a construction company was found guilty of two counts of failing to
02:22comply with health and safety duties after death of a 50 year old on its
02:25construction site. The second successful case in the Northern Territory was
02:29brought against Craig Williams who was trading as Rainbow Beach Constructions
02:34in 2023. One of Mr. Williams workers died after falling over three metres through
02:40an unguarded void while moving cabinets. In Victoria the crime is known as
02:45workplace manslaughter and has been a punishable offence since 2020. In
02:51February 2024 Victoria recorded its first workplace manslaughter conviction
02:56when the director of a company was driving a loaded forklift which tipped
03:00and killed a 25 year old subcontractor. The company was fined 1.3 million dollars
03:06and the sole director was ordered to complete a two-year 200 hour community
03:10corrections order. Advocates for these laws including unions have welcomed the
03:22introduction of industrial manslaughter laws across the country but the lack of
03:26uniformity in the way it's recorded and punished remains a concern. But it'll put
03:31the emphasis on the companies to continue to ensure that provide safe
03:34places of work and safe systems. You know and as workers go to work they should be
03:38guaranteed that they're not going to be put into a position that is unsafe
03:42you know that everyone's going to be held to account and as we said you know
03:46workers go to work to work not to die.

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