Mass Rally: No to watering down OH&S Laws
A mass rally has been called for next Tuesday in protest of the weakening of OH&S legislation.
The rally will be on Tuesday September 1st, 10am outside Trades Hall (corner Victoria & Lygon st, Carlton South- near RMIT).
The rally has been called in response to the Labor Government attempting to water down Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) laws
The Government is planning to rewrite national OH&S law so that it will be uniform across the county. While UNITE is not opposed to uniform laws for all workers in all states and territories, what this proposal means is that the OH&S standards in many workplaces will be weakened. Many workers in Victoria particularly will be worse off.
In Australia as many as 8000 workers are estimated to die each year from work related incidents or illnesses. On top of this there are 689,500 injuries and illnesses in workplaces each year. The fact that the Rudd Government want to weaken OH&S laws under these circumstances is repulsive.
In Victoria the proposals will weaken rights to attend training, place restrictions on issuing Provisional Improvement Notices (PINs) and directing a cease-work, as well as making it easier for bosses to disqualify elected OH&S Reps. The employers support these changes because it will tip the balance of power in the workplace even further in their direction.
We can not allow the Labor Party to wind back our right to go to work and come home in the same condition. We have the right to feel safe at work and not fear that our lives or the lives of our families will be ruined because our boss wants to cut corners on safety.
Unfortunately this basic human right is something we will have to fight for.
UNITE encourages all our members and supporters to attend the rally on Tuesday.
