Higher penalties, broader definitions, and national standards: Did harmonized Australian workplace health and safety laws reduce workers' compensation receipt?

Anam Bilgrami; Henry Cutler; Kompal Sinha

doi:10.1111/irel.12357

Higher penalties, broader definitions, and national standards: Did harmonized Australian workplace health and safety laws reduce workers' compensation receipt?

Anam Bilgrami^*, Henry Cutler, Kompal Sinha

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

A quasi-experiment was created in Australian policy between 2012 and 2013 when workplace health and safety laws were harmonized in all but two jurisdictions. This reform expanded definitions for duty of care, introduced criminal enforcement, and increased penalties. Using stacked difference-in-difference estimation, we fail to find overall reduced workers' compensation probability over the post-reform period. However, we find significantly reduced workers' compensation probabilities for high-risk industry workers and workers in single-location employers. We conclude that more consistent laws may not reduce overall claims and injury if they do not reduce complexity or consider available inspectorate resources, and if jurisdictions have implementation flexibility.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	77-102
Number of pages	26
Journal	Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society
Volume	64
Issue number	1
Early online date	4 Jan 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12357
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025

Bibliographical note

© 2024 The Authors. Industrial Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Regents of the University of California (RUC). Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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abstract = "A quasi-experiment was created in Australian policy between 2012 and 2013 when workplace health and safety laws were harmonized in all but two jurisdictions. This reform expanded definitions for duty of care, introduced criminal enforcement, and increased penalties. Using stacked difference-in-difference estimation, we fail to find overall reduced workers' compensation probability over the post-reform period. However, we find significantly reduced workers' compensation probabilities for high-risk industry workers and workers in single-location employers. We conclude that more consistent laws may not reduce overall claims and injury if they do not reduce complexity or consider available inspectorate resources, and if jurisdictions have implementation flexibility.",

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Higher penalties, broader definitions, and national standards: Did harmonized Australian workplace health and safety laws reduce workers' compensation receipt? / Bilgrami, Anam ; Cutler, Henry ; Sinha, Kompal.
In: Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Vol. 64, No. 1, 01.2025, p. 77-102.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Higher penalties, broader definitions, and national standards: Did harmonized Australian workplace health and safety laws reduce workers' compensation receipt?

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