Safer skies at risk, claims industry

Aviation writer CHRIS DANIELS outlines industry opposition to aircrew being covered by the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

The aviation industry is crying foul over the impending coverage of aircrew under health and safety legislation now in the final stages of being passed by Parliament.

Aircrew will, for the first time, be covered by the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

But this extension and the accompanying enforcement regime will "inevitably" put the public at greater risk in the air, says the Aviation Industry Association.

At the heart of its complaint is the present practice of pilots and aircrew being able to report potentially dangerous incidents to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) mostly without an accompanying threat of punishment.

Introduction of a punitive style of enforcement will dry up the free flow of information coming from the industry to authorities, says the association.

"This information flow allows the CAA to advise the industry of new problems or concerns, thus helping avoid future incidents," said association president John Funnell.

The Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Bill is expected to become law before Christmas. If passed, it will come into force on May 5.

"OSH is very punitive," said Funnell. "You have to report everything ... with the CAA, but they (OSH) take action. The CAA took a non-punitive approach to all but the very serious incidents."

He said it was likely the CAA would become the enforcement agency for occupational safety and health rules in the aviation sector, but it would have to enforce them under OSH - namely, punitive-style - methods.

He said the Government should instead make a few small amendments to the Civil Aviation Act to allow the CAA to take a non-punitive approach to OSH matters.

"We are trying to encourage pilots and operators to complete these reports and send them in. Now if they are going to go to court to defend themselves, they won't."

Funnell said that under the new bill, anyone could initiate a prosecution.

"It will only take one such prosecution and the whole information safety climate in civil aviation will change overnight."

Flight Attendants and Related Services Association executive officer Terry Law said the aviation industry was exaggerating the effects of OSH coverage of aircrew and focusing solely on catastrophic accidents.

There was no good reason aircrew were specifically excluded from coverage of health and safety laws.

"In our view the CAA has never until now shown the slightest interest in health and safety in employment. Their brief is to do with the safe operation of the aircraft."

The association would have preferred OSH to administer the new law, Law said.

"The key issue for us is coverage under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. We certainly have a strong preference for administration by OSH."

If the CAA did administer the law, it would simply have to change its practices and properly enforce health and safety rules.