The front page story in the The Australian newspaper has generated many emails and phone calls to SafetyAtWorkBlog from irate safety professionals.
The nub of the story is that Fair Work Australia has reinstated a worker who was sacked because of consistently unsafe work practices.
It is important to remember that the decision by Fair Work Australia is undertaken under the Fair Work Act 2009 and not occupational health and safety regulations. In the case of Norske Skog Paper Mills (Australia) Ltd the relevant OHS legislation would have been New South Wales.
The story revolves around the dismissal of an employee not the unsafe actions of that worker. Continue reading “Unsafe worker gets his job back”