South Australian Current Acts

WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2012 - 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 exposes an individual to whom that duty is owed 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)         in the case of an offence committed by an individual (other than as a person conducting a business or undertaking or as an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking)—$300 000 or 5 years imprisonment or both;

            (b)         in the case of an offence committed by an individual as a person conducting a business or undertaking or as an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking—$600 000 or 5 years imprisonment or both;

            (c)         in the case of an offence committed by a body corporate—$3 000 000.

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