St Vincent's Hospital Toowoomba Ltd v Hardy

[1998] QCA 86

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Employment Law
2. › Workplace health and safety
3. › Employer's statutory duty
4. › Duty to ensure health and safety of employees
5. › Meaning of 'ensure'
6. › Whether absolute duty or subject to reasonable foreseeability
7. › Workplace Health and Safety Act 1989 (Qld), s 9(1)
1. Statutory Interpretation
2. › Construction of statutory words
3. › Meaning of 'ensure' in workplace safety legislation
4. › Whether 'ensure' means 'make certain' imposing absolute duty
5. › Workplace Health and Safety Act 1989 (Qld), s 9(1)
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Scale of costs
4. › Whether costs limited to Magistrates Court scale where judgment below $20,000
5. › District Courts Rules, r 363A(3)

Quick Take

Section 9(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1989 (Qld) imposed an absolute duty on employers to ensure employee health and safety, meaning 'make certain' or 'make sure'. No test of reasonable foreseeability was to be read into the section; the statutory defence of impracticability in the definition of 'practicable' (s 6(1)) already incorporated considerations of risk, knowledge, and cost that overlap with foreseeability concepts. Note: s 9 was repealed by s 206 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (Qld).