G&B Lawyers Work, Health & Safety update | April 2018

The newly proposed Work Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2018, will have significant changes to NSW.

Some of these changes include:

·        empowering safety inspectors to record interviews during inspections without the consent of the interviewee; and

·        exemption of law enforcement officers from prosecution if they breach WHS duties whilst dealing with an armed offender.

Recording Interviews without consent

The recording of the interview may occur without the consent of the interviewee, however, it must be made aware to the interviewee that the interview is being recorded. This will be a significant amendment in NSW.

Exemption from prosecution for law enforcement officers

Under the proposed bill, law enforcement officers along with other officers in the chain of command, will be exempted from prosecution for breaching WHS duties, when responding and dealing with an incident concerning armed offenders.

NSW Parliament has stated that it is unreasonable to expect officers dealing with armed offenders to be at risk of prosecution due to their prioritisation of public safety over their WHS duties.

SafeWork NSW extra-territorial powers

The proposed changes will also provide SafeWork NSW with the power to obtain information from company branches in other states and territories for NSW investigations.

This change is proposed to reduce the inefficiencies caused by the need to subpoena information located interstate.