Who Goes to Prison Under NSW’s New Safety Laws
The NSW industrial manslaughter law carries the harshest workplace safety penalties in Australia: a fine of up to $20 million for a body corporate, and up to 25 years in prison for an individual. The offence commenced on 16 September 2024, and it applies to every workplace death in the state from that date forward.
This article explains what the offence covers, who can face prosecution, and why the records on your site, from the service register to the annual fire safety audit, now carry criminal weight. It is general information, not legal advice.
What the NSW Industrial Manslaughter Law Says
The NSW Parliament passed the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Industrial Manslaughter) Act 2024 on 20 June 2024, and the offence commenced on 16 September 2024, as confirmed by SafeWork NSW. It sits inside the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), not in a separate piece of legislation.
A person commits industrial manslaughter when they engage in grossly negligent conduct that breaches a work health and safety duty they owe to someone, and that conduct causes the person's death.
Two details matter here. First, the law creates no new duties. Your obligations are the same ones you already held under the WHS Act. Second, the threshold is gross negligence, not a simple slip. So prosecutors must prove a serious failure against a duty you were already required to meet.
Who Can Be Prosecuted
The offence applies to persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) of every structure: sole traders, partnerships, companies and government agencies. It also applies to officers, which captures directors and the senior decision-makers who shape how a business runs safety.
For a company, the penalty is the $20 million fine. For an individual officer, there is no fine at all. The only penalty available is imprisonment, up to 25 years of it. That design tells you what Parliament intended: an officer cannot buy their way out of a workplace death.
The offence excludes volunteers. An unpaid volunteer acting in good faith cannot face this charge.
Why This Offence Bites Harder Than Other WHS Charges
Three features separate the NSW industrial manslaughter law from every other charge under the WHS Act.
There is no limitation period. Most WHS prosecutions must start within two years of the offence. However, an industrial manslaughter prosecution can begin at any time, even years after a death, if the evidence supports it.
Enforceable undertakings are off the table. For lesser offences, a business can sometimes commit to a binding improvement program instead of facing court. SafeWork NSW cannot accept one for industrial manslaughter.
The penalties dwarf everything below them. Even a Category 1 offence, the most serious charge available before this one, carries a fraction of the exposure. Industrial manslaughter is reserved for the worst failures, and it is priced accordingly.
The Paper Trail That Decides Gross Negligence
Gross negligence does not turn on the day of the incident. It turns on the years of records that came before it. When investigators arrive, they read before they inspect.
SafeWork NSW sets out six areas where officers must take reasonable steps under their due diligence duty:
- Keep your knowledge of WHS matters current.
- Understand your operations and the hazards they create.
- Resource the people, plant and processes that eliminate or minimise risk.
- Respond to incident and hazard reports quickly, with a clear escalation path.
- Implement processes for meeting every WHS duty and obligation you hold.
- Verify all of the above through audits, inspections and reviews.
Every one of those steps produces evidence: training records, risk registers, budget approvals for controls, incident logs, closed-out audit findings. Your fire protection equipment produces evidence too. A stamped tag and a complete service register show a site that met its duty, and we covered the fire equipment testing requirements under AS 1851 and the records each service must leave behind. A missed interval tells the opposite story, and under this law the opposite story has a 25-year ceiling.
Where We Fit In
We are not lawyers, and questions about your corporate structure belong with one. What we do is help you build the physical side of a defence that should never need testing in court, because the death never happens.
We supply and service Commander fire extinguishers, emergency warning systems, exit and emergency lighting, and wireless alarm systems from Cygnus and Orisent that keep alarm coverage over construction and industrial sites where cabling is impractical. We also help you keep the schedule and the register that prove everything was serviced and maintained.
Book a site review before an investigator conducts one for you. Call us on 1800 273 473 or email sales@checkpointgroup.com.au, and we will walk your site, check your equipment coverage against your risk, and leave you with a record of the visit for your register.
