The offence of failing to take reasonable care for the safety of others under s 25(1)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1985 (Vic) requires only the civil standard of negligence, not gross or criminal negligence. The fact that employees may breach safety standards does not necessarily reduce the gravity of a breach committed by an employer under s 21. For small private companies, the principle of double jeopardy applies on Crown sentence appeals in a manner more closely resembling its application to natural persons than to public corporations.
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