Australian employers are increasingly focusing their attention on preventional or “pro-active” occupational health, safety and security policies as the introduction of a new 'harmonized' national regime draws near. For lawyers this equates to an increasing workload of advisory work, instead of the traditional disputes-based work.

According to Gerard Phillips, head of the workplace relations & safety group division at Middletons, the new laws coming into effect on January 1, 2012, have meant an increase in the amount of pro-active work . He estimates that his ratio of pro-active work has increased from 10% five years ago, to 30 or 40% today. “I envisage more advisory work this year and next, but following this I expect more litigious work and prosecutions to increase,” said Phillips. 

However, while the tough new penalties are an obvious driver for businesses to get on top of the new rules, Phillips says the overall cost to a business involved in a workplace incident can cost far more than a fine. “For many it’s the fear of a criminal conviction, and the possibility that the business could be shut down,” he said.

Norton Rose partner and head of the firm's OHSS practice, Michael Tooma, has also noticed a significant shift in the type of work he does in the workplace field, from both regulatory changes and a desire amongst corporate Australia to improve standards. “Half of what I do these days is proactive work,” says Tooma.  “It used to be a bigger emphasis on responses rather than prevention, but over time you see so much death and accidents, you think - we have to do better.”

Tooma says the new laws are forcing businesses to focus more on the prevention side of OHSS because of the tougher new penalties. “It’s getting tougher and tougher, the penalties are getting higher and the consequences of getting it wrong are higher, and this is very much a centre piece of board considerations around Australia,” he said.

From January 1 next year all state and territory based workplace laws will be replaced by a national regime under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.