Workers rally for tougher legislation. Inset: Joel Exner’s mum Sue.

Workers call for industrial manslaughter charge

By Kerri Carr

Unions are campaigning for better safety conditions on construction sites and tougher penalties for bosses who don't keep workplaces safe after former Evans High School student Joel Exner was killed after his third day on the job at a building site on October 15.

Joel was killed when he fell 15 metres through the roof of a storage shed under construction at Eastern Creek.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and other unions want laws that ensure that if workers are killed due to negligence, bosses can be jailed. They want to see a charge of industrial manslaughter introduced into legislation.

Unions held a safety meeting at Sydney Town Hall Square on October 27 before marching to State Parliament House. The families of workers killed in the workplace, including Joel's mum Sue, led the rally. Rallies and marches were also held in Newcastle, Wollongong and Gosford.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state secretary Paul Bastian said one worker dies in NSW every 43 hours.

He said penalties for workers who caused the death of a fellow worker were heavier than those faced by bosses.

"The best way to focus a boss's mind is the threat that you can end up in jail for killing a worker," Mr Bastian said.

"We need a new law.

"We are here to make sure pollies know we are fair dinkum in this campaign to have injuries and deaths eliminated, and if not reduced."

CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson said: "A young worker has been unnecessarily killed."

At the Federal level the CFMEU is opposing the Howard Government's proposed changes to legislation (see story page 7). The CFMEU website states these proposed laws would "make it harder for workers to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. Workers will have to prove conditions are unsafe."

Federal ALP industrial relations spokesman Craig Emerson told the rally said: "We will oppose Howard's anti worker legislation."

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