A Geelong mother’s 19 year old son never came home from work one day – he was killed on the job.
This story was shared with me many years ago when I was an activist fighting to stop cases like this from happening ever again.
I’ll never forget the mother’s grief, and I always remember it when we hear of yet another tragic workplace death.
These deaths are so common because employers know that making their workplaces safe to prevent the death could be more expensive than paying the fine after it happens.
And yes, under the current law, employers can be let off with a fine – often just a drop in the bucket of their profits.
So we’re changing the law. Being killed at a workplace brings the same pain to families as being killed anywhere else, so the law should treat it like being killed anywhere else.
When this becomes law, it will be treated as a crime.
And when bosses know they could go to jail for up to twenty years, we’ll see the end of workplace deaths.
That’s because every worker’s life matters, and until there’s not even one death at work because of unsafe practice or poor training, we won’t rest.