Overview
The Directorate provided advice and developed legislation on industrial relations, work safety (including dangerous substances and asbestos), public holidays and daylight saving.
It provided support for the ACT's contribution to the national harmonisation of work health and safety and workers' compensation laws, and participated in the Workplace Relations Ministers' Council, including work under the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Workplace Relations System; secretariat responsibility for the ACT Work Safety Council was also covered.
The Directorate also continued to take a leading role in coordinating the Government's implementation of the recommendations in the Getting Home Safely Report, including providing secretariat support to the Deputy Directors'‐General Steering Committee and working closely with directorates to develop and implement responses.
In performing the work under this Output, there was ongoing consultation with key stakeholders, including employer associations, unions, industry participants, local, state and Australian Governments and members of the community.
Highlights
Against this Output in 2013-14 the Directorate:
- coordinated the initial whole of government response to dealing with loose-fill asbestos insulation in ACT homes, including the provision of information to householders and ongoing advice to the government and the community;
- developed and implemented regulations to mandate asbestos awareness training;
- continued, at the national level, negotiations on the implementation of codes of practice and guidance materials to underpin the model work health and safety legislation;
- participated at the national level to implement the decision of COAG to review the model work health and safety legislation to remove unnecessary regulation;
- participated at the national level to develop uniform legislation across Australia to regulate explosives;
- implemented a new regulatory funding model for the Territory's private sector workers' compensation scheme, where the costs associated with regulating the scheme are transferred to workers' compensation insurers through a Regulatory Levy, which in 2014-15 will be expanded to also partly fund the Territory's work health and safety regulatory operations;
- led a tripartite national initiative to implement a nationally consistent permanent impairment assessment tool and associated supporting infrastructure such as assessor training;
- went live with a new Workers' Compensation Management System, that provides enhanced data security and data quality, a more flexible interface for insurers and a much greater capacity to monitor and report on work injury management in the Territory;
- facilitated a Memorandum of Understanding between all States and Territories (excluding Tasmania) wherein agreement was reached to adopt national cross-border guidelines to assist employers determine which workers' compensation jurisdiction they must insure workers who work in more than one state or territory; and
- undertook a service-wide assessment of due diligence actions being undertaken to comply with the requirements of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 as a precursor to a series of workshops for Executives to ensure best practice work health and safety was applied in all workplaces. A key part of these activities was to undertake a risk assessment of the operations of the Service that has led to the implementation of targeted improvement plans to achieve best practice Work Health and Safety performance.
All but one of the accountability indicators for Output 1.3 were met or surpassed. The one indicator that was not met was the ACT Work Safety Council met on three not four occasions due to other work pressures, matters of immediate importance were considered out of session.
The measures for the accountability indicators relating to the provision of advice on issues affecting ACT workers and issues relating to dangerous substances were both exceeded. This included advice to Government on matters relating to insurance coverage for workers and improvements to the design and operation of the workers' compensation scheme, the operation and possible expansion of the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009 reforms to the Holidays Act 1958 and advice on the consequences for ACT workers of amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cwlth). Advice was also provided on issues relating to the liability for the remediation of contaminated land and the ongoing management and liability of asbestos in the Territory.
The Directorate participated in thirty-one meetings of Safe Work Australia and its various sub‑committees and working groups, twenty-one more than expected as Safe Work Australia's work program was broadened. Issues covered included ongoing harmonisation of work health and safety legislation, issues arising from the Getting Home Safely Report that have national consequences, developing uniform explosives legislation across Australia and developing collaborative projects under the Australian work health and safety strategy.
Future Directions
In 2014-15, the Directorate will:
- continue to work with Safe Work Australia, other jurisdictions and key stakeholders in the Territory as part of the COAG led review of the model work health and safety legislation;
- work with Safe Work Australia and other jurisdictions on the review of the intergovernmental agreement on the regulatory reform of occupational health and safety;
- work with Safe Work Australia and other jurisdictions to develop uniform explosives legislation across Australia;
- seek to finalise the model regulations for Hazardous Chemicals and Major Hazard Facilities into work health and safety legislation;
- recommend initiatives to Government to reduce regulatory costs for business and streamline the workers' compensation dispute resolution process;
- focus on strengthening workers' compensation premium compliance in the ACT's private sector workers' compensation scheme;
- modernise the scheme performance monitoring and reporting services by leveraging off the new Workers' Compensation Management System's enhanced data quality;
- continue to work closely with Safe Work Australia to progress national harmonisation initiatives relating to permanent impairment assessment and deemed diseases; and
- clarify cross-border state of connection tests through legislative change to align with the updated national rules, providing authoritative guidance for the scheme's Approved Insurers, employers and ultimately the courts in the event of dispute.
Further Information can be obtained from:
Michael Young
Executive Director
Continuous Improvement and Workers' Compensation
+61 2 6207 0796