Infringement notices and 'on-the-spot' fines

Workplace Standards Tasmania will soon commence the use of infringement notices for breaches of some offences under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 and the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations 1998.

The use of infringement notices as an enforcement tool was provided for with amendments to the Regulations in 2006. Infringement notices may be used for 10 offences under the Act and 89 offences under the Regulations. The identified breaches already exist as offences under the legislation but until now could only be enforced through bringing more complex and costly court action against an offender.

The infringement notice approach will lead to more efficient enforcement through application to only clear cut offences. Infringement notices allow Workplace Standards Inspectors to act promptly to bring about an immediate change in dangerous or unacceptable behaviour in a workplace.

Offence types range from breaches of administrative requirements such as failing to maintain records or notification of dangerous incidents to breaches for failing to undertake specific duties such as wearing personal protective equipment or failure to have a certificate of competency to perform certain work such as operating a fork lift. Fines range from $60 to $3000 depending on the seriousness of each offence and apply to individuals as well as corporations.

An integral part of the implementation process has been training inspectors in the use of the notices and approaches to be adopted by the inspectors when issuing a notice for a breach. A key purpose of this training is to help ensure consistent application by inspectors. Workplace Standards Tasmania engaged the services of the Tasmanian Police to provide part of the training and this has been complemented by in-house instructions and guidance.

For further information about infringement notices or the enforcement or the prosecution policies of Workplace Standards Tasmania contact the Helpline as below.