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Workplace

Work Health & Safety

Our team has the leading expertise to step in and help handle any workplace situation in Australia, applying their specialist skills to mitigate the liability and reputational damage.

Our experience covers incidents of all kinds, from workplace bullying to electrocution, and from forklift accidents to crush injuries.

A work safety incident needs to be handled quickly, professionally and thoroughly. For an employer, it is a terrifying prospect, involving investigation by the safety regulator and possibly involvement of the police. While the injured employee’s wellbeing is always the priority, other critical considerations include the impact on other workers, and the significant risk of criminal prosecution.

Expert assistance – early

Providing an effective, swift ‘first response’ is absolutely critical following any incident. Our first step is to assist in managing the investigation, as urgently as is required. We will implement the right strategy from the get-go, sending ‘boots on the ground’ to arrive within hours after being called in. We are highly experienced in taking immediate and effective action – and this can involve:

  • ensuring the early application of legal professional privilege over your internal investigations
  • minimising the flow of adverse information to the safety regulator and the police
  • dealing with the media
  • helping to manage a distressed and traumatised workforce.

Handling a prosecution

In the event of a prosecution, our team’s extensive work health and safety experience will ensure you receive the right legal and strategic advice. We will urgently identify whether you can avoid a conviction and significant penalties, and if so, how. Questions such as “is an enforceable undertaking available?”, “should a guilty plea be entered”, or “should the charges be contested?” need to be dealt with quickly and decisively. We know the questions and how to best respond to mitigate the exposure of our clients, their insured customers, and any individuals involved.

We handle other statutory investigations and prosecutions

We also have considerable experience acting in and defending statutory investigations and prosecutions by other regulators. This includes marine safety regulators, electrical safety regulators, and road safety/heavy vehicle regulators, such as Roads and Maritime Services NSW (RMS).

Minimising the risks

Of course, the best cure is always prevention. Our advisory service will support employers in helping to reduce workplace safety law risks by:

  • running management and employee training
  • auditing safety practices
  • drafting work health and safety policies
  • advising on critical incident response.

Click here for our Work Health & Safety Limelight articles.

Contact us to learn more as to how we can assist you.