MCA chief executive Mitchell Hooke said the industry's commitment to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) training and initiatives was not determined by whether workers are operating under enterprise based agreements or individual contracts under new Australian workplace agreements.

He said the WorkChoices legislation did not override the constitutional responsibility of the states for OH&S.

Hooke maintained that nothing in the legislation stopped OH&S training provisions being included in WorkChoices agreements.

“Safety and health training may be provided by a range of service providers, including unions, industry associations and government bodies,” he said.

But Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union general president Tony Maher told International Longwall News the new laws would affect coal miners because the provision of health and safety training was not allowed in the agreements anymore.

Maher said this meant employers could allow their workers to go to OH&S training but are not obliged by a provision to do so, which he said was not conducive to best health and safety outcomes.

“I think it would be a shortsighted employer that doesn’t allow workers to do the training but today they might say ‘no problem’ and tomorrow they might refuse, so it’s pretty unsatisfactory,” he said.

Maher said the CFMEU would continue to convene OH&S training courses provided by the union and paid for by the union.

He said workers under current agreements will still have the right to attend the courses but those with agreements made under the new legislation would have to get permission to attend.

“But over time nobody will have the right to attend the training as agreements are renewed and the new laws come into play,” Maher said.

Hooke said there should be no case to support unions securing a monopoly in the provision of such critical training in WorkChoices Agreements and that safety training has always been and should continue to be the responsibility of management.

“If management is to be held accountable for the safety of the workforce then management has to have control of and responsibility for the design and content of training,” Hooke said.