New South Wales Consolidated Acts

WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2011 - SECT 31

31 Gross negligence or reckless conduct--Category 1

(1) A person commits a Category 1 offence if--

(a) the person has a health and safety duty, and

(b) the person, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct that--

(i) exposes an individual, to whom the duty is owed, to a risk of death or serious injury or illness, or

(ii) if the person is an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking--exposes an individual, to whom the person conducting a business or undertaking owes a health and safety duty, to a risk of death or serious injury or illness, and

(c) the person--

(i) engages in the conduct with gross negligence, or

(ii) is reckless as to the risk to an individual of death or serious injury or illness.

: Maximum penalty--

(a) for an individual, as a person conducting a business or undertaking or an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking--18,805 penalty units or 10 years imprisonment, or both, or

(b) for an individual, otherwise--9,038 penalty units or 10 years imprisonment, or both, or

(c) for a body corporate--90,424 penalty units.

(2) The prosecution bears the burden of proving that the conduct was engaged in without reasonable excuse.