Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

VTHC hosts OHS Reps Conference

On Wednesday, 25 October the Victorian Trades Hall Council hosted its eighth annual OHS Representatives Seminar.  Over 1700 people attended the seminar, marking a new record turnout for what is the world’s largest gathering of OHS Representatives.  OHS Reps came from as far afield as Mildura and from all industries and occupations.

The theme of this years’ conference – ‘Promoting OHS Standards – Let’s Band Together’ – summarised the union movements approach to the health and safety and the Howard government’s extreme workplace laws.

Brian Boyd, Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary, stated that unions promote a standard of health and safety that is proactive in preventing injury and disease.  Our OHS standards also pursue the rights of workers to a safe and healthy work environment and the rights of OHS Reps.   The threat of the Howard government to these rights was the theme of Brian’s further comments and of each of the speakers at the Seminar.

Minister John Lenders spoke about the decision of the May 2006 ALP State Conference to provide further protection from discrimination as a result of raising an OHS issue, in light of impact of the federal government’s workplace laws.

Other speakers included Professor Kaj Frick from Sweden, talking about essential components of good worker participation and Professor Michael Quinlan from University of New South Wales outlining the negative affects of the federal governments workplace laws.  Summaries of these and a number of other speeches can be found on the OHS Reps website


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