On Monday 18 August a delegation of union officials and members from the ANF, AMWU, ASU, CFMEU, ETU, NTEU and Trades Hall went to meet the CEO, Directors, board members and staff of WorkCover and WorkSafe. The meeting was initiated by WorkCover and was a round table discussion about issues affecting workers in the regional areas.
We received a good hearing and got some positive responses, although we are not happy with some of the answers, it was agreed that the forum was useful and that future feedback and discussion was a good idea.
Issues raised included;
- Union officials not being able to access workplaces even after all the correct procedures were followed.
- Not being able to represent workers even after being invited to the workplace by the Health and Safety Representative.
- The nature of Stress claims and the role of the "Hanks Review".
- Failure to prosecute breaches of the Act including not complying with "notifiable incidences".
- The limitation of the 12 months limit rule on investigations and prosecutions.
- The drop in staffing levels at the Geelong WorkSafe office.
- Protection of HSRs.
- Unsatisfactory review processes for the DWG Review.
WorkCover gave us a commitment to get back to us on a number of issues raised. It was good to see the top brass of WorkCover in Geelong and being prepared to be in the hot seat. We look forward to the next meeting to see how things are moving along. As Alexander the Great once wrote "in the end it only matters what you have done".
Watch this space.
