Fair remuneration and safe working conditions are fundamental rights of all workers. Consequently, the Tasmanian Greens are committed to upholding these rights, enabling people to thrive in their work. 

All workers are entitled to clear career pathways and effective professional development.

The Greens support the right of workers to organise collectively and, accordingly, uphold the rights of workers to organise in free association and to be represented by effective and reasonable employee organisations.

Continual changes to Workers Compensation law have severely impaired access to the common law for injured workers who wish to sue for employer negligence. Injury thresholds remain at too high a level and allow no flexibility for a person’s individual circumstances to be taken into consideration

The Greens are committed to protecting workers’ rights under relevant state legislative provisions and will amend the criminal code to create the offence of Industrial Manslaughter.

Measures:

Legislation: protect state industrial awards from erosion through changes to federal industrial law changes; amend the criminal code to create the offence of Industrial Manslaughter, punishable by fines and/or custodial sentences

Right to Organise: support the right of workers to organise and collectively bargain, and to union membership and representation, with union access to the workplace

Disadvantage Tests: retain the ‘no disadvantage’ test for workplace agreements to ensure award conditions are not eroded

Industrial Commission: retain the Tasmanian Industrial Commission with its current powers and mechanisms

Pay Parity: ensure that Tasmanian workers receive the same pay and conditions as their mainland counterparts when working for, or subcontracting to, any government business enterprise or state owned company

State Public Sector: require the government to negotiate in good faith with the public sector rather than forcing unions to industrial action; ensure that, when requested, negotiations address improved conditions as well as wage increases

Workers Compensation:  reform Tasmanian legislation to ensure greater equity for all injured workers in their recourse to Common Law;  remove all legislative impediments that preclude specific types of work from workers compensation eligibility; reduce the punitive impact of step-down provisions;  reduce the whole person impairment threshold for access to common law negligence claims to 10 percent or less;  introduce a serious injury narrative test to operate alongside the objective threshold for Common Law access to ensure that a worker whose injury has greater impact because of their occupation or other circumstance can make that case;  change the process for electing to access Common Law so that workers whose total injuries become apparent more than two years after an accident or injury are not excluded

Rehabilitation and Training:  upgrade requirements for rehabilitation and training of injured workers and increase resources to ensure compliance; provide greater incentives to employers for better induction and training for workers

Litigation Costs: examine the issue of high legal costs acting as a deterrent to genuine workers' compensation claims, and act to ensure all injured workers are treated equitably

Workplace Safety Inspections: increase monitoring and enforcement of workplace conditions

Volunteers: amend legislation to ensure volunteers are compensated in the event of injury; ensure that voluntary labour or service is used legitimately and is not used improperly to displace paid employees