VIC Employment Law on Health and Safety at Work?

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D

Deleted member 17143

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A colleague is concerned about unsafe operating procedures at her work.

She says that there is no health and safety manual at work (fruit trees), the equipment is unsafe, and she is having to fix equipment herself and also pay for it out of her money in order to get the job done.

The owner takes holidays but does not fix the equipment or provide safety equipment or a safety manual. He is not worried about health and safety. All the equipment is decrepit and falling apart.

Each time she approaches him, he says that there is nothing wrong and she must sort it out. Now the problem has arisen that she is overseeing less-experienced workers operating equipment which is unsafe. What happens if something goes wrong and someone is injured under employment law?
 

Rod

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The employer is mainly responsible. Your colleague may have some responsibility under negligence laws if they instruct a worker to use faulty equipment.

Your colleague should document the issues in writing and give the issues to the employer, and keep a copy for themselves.

It is not an employment law issue, it is one of personal injury. Workcover would likely pay wages if time off work is needed, but always better to prevent an injury.
 
D

Deleted member 17143

Guest
Thank you for your reply
A few more questions:
1) if the supervisor was not on the premises and workers took it upon themselves to do tasks and were injured where ed supervisor stand?
2) supervisor instructed by employer to tell workers to use machinery which is faulty/ perform tasks for which they are not trained and something goes wrong, where does supervisor stand?
Thank you in advance
 

Rod

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1. The devil is the detail. Cannot give a black and white answer to this question.

2. Then supervisor should refuse. By telling workers they will likely take some of the blame.