Taking up the Fight for Jobs with Justice
The landmark decision by NSW Industrial Relations Commission finding transport employer Jim Hitchcock guilty for breaches of the Occupational Health & Safety Act was a step towards reducing the number of people being killed in truck accidents on our roads.
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TWU members march for Jobs With Justice |
This judgment is small consolation for Darri Haynes, the truck driver incinerated when the Hitchcock truck he was driving crashed on the Pacific Highway in September 1999, his family, and the 85 other families destroyed as a result of fatal truck accidents on NSW roads this year.
While Workcover deserves to be congratulated for taking this first step and prosecuting a transport company for, among other things, failing to provide a safe system of work for long haul truck driving, so much more needs to be done.
The death of a single driver is far too high a price to pay for fresh goods on our shelves, however in NSW the number of deaths was 102. Every one of these fatalities should be investigated and dozens more prosecutions brought where appropriate.
If this sort of carnage was happening in any other workplace or industry there would be a Royal Commission and immediate action to put a stop to the bloodshed. In the NSW transport industry, however, despite 524 people being killed in truck accidents on NSW roads in the four years to December 2004 this is Workcover’s first successful prosecution.
Transport workers, their families, and tens of thousands of innocent road users deserve better.
Workcover has to also start making the clients of our industry accountable. Clients are the ones who are making massive profits from forcing companies like Hitchcock’s to push their drivers over the edge and not take safety seriously.
To do this our Government needs to urgently implement TWU members claims for Chain of Responsibility. Employers and clients across the industry should also be making a stand and signing off on TWU members claims in their agreements.
To get involved in the fight for Jobs with Justice contact your TWU call centre on (02) 9912 0700 or sign up now.
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PROTECTING AUSSIE JOBS 
