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Work Health and Safety Regulation in Australia

Author

,

ISBN

9781760024024

Format

Paperback

Publication date

31/08/2022

Page extent

448

AUD $145.00 gst included

SKU: 9781760024024 Category:

Work health and safety regulation is an important and fast developing area of labour law. Over the past decade work health and safety law in Australia has undergone major reform, with all but one of the Australian jurisdictions adopting the Model Work Health and Safety Act 2010 (the Model Act). This book analyses the Australian work health and safety statutes just over 11 years after the Model Act was first adopted.

Written by an experienced academic labour lawyer and a leading work health and safety legal practitioner, the book explains work health and safety law in Australia – principally the Work Health and Safety Acts enacted since 2011 in all Australian jurisdictions apart from Victoria, the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), and judicial interpretation of these statutory provisions. It provides a historical and policy context to the legislation, outlines practical issues, elucidates its practical operation, critically analyses its provisions, and makes proposals for the future development of the legislation.

Johnstone and Tooma critically analyse the Work Health and Safety Acts and the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 in six chapters:

  • introduction to the Australian work health and safety statutes
  • the general duties of PCBUs and employers
  • the general duties of officers, workers, employees and other persons at a workplace
  • worker representation, consultation and participation
  • inspection and enforcement
  • final observations and proposals.

Chapter 1 Work Health and Safety Regulation in Australia
Chapter 2 The Duties of Employers and Persons Who Conduct a Business or Undertaking
Chapter 3 The Duties of Officers, Workers and Others
Chapter 4 Worker Representation and Participation
Chapter 5 Inspection and Enforcement
Chapter 6 Final Observations

This is where the text no doubt serves its greatest purpose, as an informed and ongoing discussion into the continuing way that this evolving area of law can be improved and enhanced, with the aim of providing better and healthier workplaces for all. Read full review…

Joseph Kelly, Kelly Workplace Lawyers, Law Institute Journal (Vic) April 2023

In this reviewer’s opinion, Johnstone and Tooma’s Work Health and Safety Regulation in Australia is the most important Australian text in the field since Neil Gunningham’s 1984 classic Safeguarding the Worker: Job Hazards and the Role of the Law.

This book represents the culmination of the 40 years that Richard Johnstone has been researching and writing about work health and safety law in Australia and overseas as well as mentoring others (including this reviewer). I commend the book to the many practitioners, policy makers, regulators and judicial officers called upon to apply or develop work health and safety law in this country. Read full review…

Judge Peter Rozen, County Court of Victoria – Journal of Work Health and Safety Regulation (2023)

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