Work Death in Victoria, 1987–1990: An Overview
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589502800204 |
| Date | 01 June 1995 |
| Published date | 01 June 1995 |
| Author | Santina Perrone,Fiona Haines,Kenneth Polk |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Work Death in Victoria, 1987-1990:
An Overview'
Kenneth Polk, Fiona Haines and Santina Petronet
This investigation describes the level and nature of work-related traumatic
work deaths whichoccurred in Victoria in 1987-90. There were atotal
of
353
such deaths reported to the coroner in this period. While alarge number
of
these deaths involved farmers or self-employed workers, amajority were
found to involve work in the context of acompany. Further, most of these
company work deaths involved some amount of negligence on the part
of
the employer. In all, there were prosecutions in only 34
of
the 353 fatalities,
all
of
which resulted in convictions. Despite the fact that at least
25
of these
deaths could be seen as resulting from extreme employer negligence, and
that at least four of the negligent companies were repeat offenders, there
were no prosecutions of either individuals or companies underprovisions of
the Crimes
Act
(all convictions were obtained for breaches of occupational
health
and
safety regulations). There is in these data, then, further evidence
of aIgentle' posture on the part of regulatory agencies.
This is a report of an investigation into work-related fatalities occurring in
Victoria during the years 1987-90. The purposes of this paper include (1)
providing a description of the nature and characteristics of death at work in
this period, including an analysis of the important question of the degree of
employer negligence; (2) developing an analysis of how regulatory and justice
agencies responded to the work death; and (3) drawing from this review of the
regulatory response to work death, especially in cases where negligence can
be demonstrated, conclusions regarding the wider issue of strategies that may
be employed in the control of corporate and white collar misconduct.
Less than a decade ago, one observer of occupational health and safety in
Australia was able to comment that in general, 'Statistics on industrial injury,
and disease are lamentable - inaccurate, incompatible and inaccessible'
(Merritt 1985:14). Fortunately, we are beginning to close this gap. One
important step was the national enumeration of work related deaths which can
be found in the study conducted by the National Institute of Occupational
Health and Safety, where it was reported that for the years 1982-4 there were
1738 work deaths in Australia (Harrison, Frommer & Blyth 1989; for a similar
study conducted in New Zealand, see Cryer &Fleming 1987).
Adetailed study of fatalities occurring at work in New South Wales has
been reported in the recent work of Hopkins, Easson and Harrison (1992).
This investigation provides valuable information, first, on the nature of such
deaths. Just under half (44%), for example, occur across the range of transport
settings, with the largest proportion of these being road deaths (28% of the
total deaths involving heavy vehicles, with 7% made up of other road deaths),
with a smaller proportion being accounted for by deaths related to railways
(4%), boating (3%) or light aircraft (2%). Just over two-thirds of deaths
*Received: 11 October 1993; accepted in revised form: 29 October 1994.
tCriminology Department, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3052.
178
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