Workplace Health and Safety

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2013:

Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Melbourne Law Masters will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.

The Melbourne Law Masters welcomes applications from students with disabilities. The inherent academic requirements for study in the Melbourne Law Masters are:

• The ability to attend a minimum of 75% of classes and actively engage in the analysis and critique of complex materials and debate;
• The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and to critically evaluate these;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
• The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
• The ability to present orally and in writing legal analysis to a professional standard.

Students who feel their disability will inhibit them from meeting these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact the Disability Liaison Unit: www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Australian governments have publicly committed to implementing nationally uniform laws about workplace health and safety, commencing in January 2012. This development is bringing to fruition a process that began 30 years ago. This subject explores the background to this historical development and examines in detail the content of the new laws, as well as existing laws.

By referring to that existing state, territory and Commonwealth body of law, the subject considers the likely practical operation of the new regulatory regime. The subject is taught by a barrister with extensive practical experience in running cases under workplace health and safety laws.

Principal topics will include:

• The problem of work-related injury and disease
• The history of the legal regulation of health and safety at work
• Nationally uniform workplace health and safety laws
• Standard setting under the Australian occupational health and safety statutes
• State enforcement of the occupational health and safety legislation
• Workers’ rights under the Australian occupational health and safety statutes
• Workers’ compensation schemes in Australia
• The rehabilitation of injured workers
• The role and impact of the common law duty to provide a safe workplace.

A student who has successfully completed this subject should:

• Be able to apply, at an advanced level, the legal principles of Victorian occupational health and safety law in problem-solving exercises
• Be able to analyse emerging and contemporary issues in Victorian and Australian occupational health and safety law and scholarship
• Appreciate the industrial relations, economic and social contexts of injury and disease at the workplace, and its regulation
• Be able to use historical, theoretical and practical perspectives to evaluate the way in which law can be used to prevent and compensate for illness and injury at work, and to rehabilitate workers suffering work-related illness and injury
• Demonstrate an understanding of the development of Victorian and Australian occupational health and safety law in an international context.

Take-home examination (100%) (5–9 December)

or

10,000 word research paper (100%) (29 January 2014) on a topic approved by the subject coordinator

Core subject materials will be provided free of charge to all students. Some subjects require further texts to be purchased. Visit the Melbourne Law Masters website for more information about this subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.