Industrial manslaughter has become a focus of Australian workplace safety legislation, with most jurisdictions enacting legislation to impose significant penalties for negligent or reckless conduct that causes the death of a worker. This article explores the scope, penalties, and enforcement of industrial manslaughter in Australia.
What Is Industrial Manslaughter?
Industrial manslaughter refers to an offence where an employer, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), or an officer breaches their duty of care and negligently or recklessly causes the death of a worker. This offence carries severe penalties, including substantial fines for corporations and imprisonment for individuals. Industrial manslaughter is also sometimes known as corporate manslaughter or workplace manslaughter.
While industrial manslaughter laws differ across States and Territories, most jurisdictions share a common requirement that the PCBU or officer must breach their duty of care under relevant work health and safety laws, and this breach must result in a worker’s death. However, the fault element varies, with each jurisdiction applying different tests for negligence or recklessness.
Generally, the elements of industrial manslaughter require:
- A breach of duty under workplace health and safety laws;
- Conduct that causes the death of a worker; and
- A level of recklessness, negligence, or gross negligence.
Unlike the balance of the work health and safety legislation in the various jurisdictions, which is risk-based, the offence of industrial manslaughter captures serious breaches of work health and safety duties, which cause the death of a person at work.
The implications of the law are that breaches of work health and safety laws in Australia that result in a death carry substantially significant penalties.
Industrial Manslaughter Victoria
In Victoria, industrial manslaughter is known as “workplace manslaughter”, which was introduced in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) (the OHS Act) under section 39G, commencing on 1 July 2020. Workplace manslaughter is an indictable offence (s39G(4)).
Under this section, a person or an officer of an entity who is not a volunteer must not engage in conduct that:
- is negligent; and
- constitutes a breach of an applicable duty that the person or entity owes to another person; and
- causes the death of that other person.
An entity is an applicable entity for the purposes of this section (whether or not it represents the Crown) if it is:
- a body corporate; or
- an unincorporated body or association; or
- a partnership.
Unlike other indictable offences under the OHS Act, this offence cannot be heard and determined summarily, as section 28 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 does not apply (Note s39G).
Penalties for Workplace Manslaughter
In Victoria, the maximum penalty for workplace manslaughter is 25 years imprisonment for an individual and a fine of 100,000 penalty units ($19,231,000 as of 2024) for a corporation (the OHS Act s39G).
Those who can be charged and prosecuted with workplace manslaughter include organisations and those who are self-employed and who hold specified duties under the OHS Act. Such organisations include:
- trustees of a trust
- bodies corporate (for example, registered companies)
- incorporated associations
- statutory authorities
- unincorporated bodies and unincorporated associations
- partnerships
- government entities
If an organisation has specified duties under the OHS Act, officers of the entity may also be charged with workplace manslaughter.
Officers are the most senior within an organisation and have the resources to improve safety. Officers include:
- A person:
- who makes, or participates in making, decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the business; or
- who has the capacity to significantly affect the entity’s financial standing;
- Directors or secretaries of a corporation; or
- in accordance with whose instructions or wishes the directors of a corporation are accustomed to act.
- A partner in a partnership; and
- An office holder of an unincorporated association
In Victoria, workplace manslaughter does not apply to a volunteer or an employee unless the employee is also an officer of the organisation.
However, an employee can be prosecuted for breaching employee duties under the OHS Act, such as the duty to take reasonable care for their own health and safety and the health and safety of others in the workplace (s25).
Duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
The offence of workplace manslaughter applies if there is a breach of a specified duty under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the OHS Act). The law does not create any new duties under the OHS Act. Therefore, employers and officers who comply with existing OHS duties and responsibilities cannot be charged with workplace manslaughter. The law merely increases the penalties for a serious breach of those duties.
The main duties under the OHS Act include:
- The duty of employers to provide and maintain a working environment for employees that is safe and without risks to health (s21(1)).
- The duty of employers to monitor the health of employees and working conditions (s22).
- The duty of employers to ensure persons other than employees are not endangered by the conduct of the business (s23).
- The duty of self-employed persons to ensure persons are not exposed to OHS risks from the undertaking of the self-employed person (s24).
- The duty of persons with the management or control of a workplace to ensure that the workplace and the means of entering and leaving it are safe (s26).
- The duty of designers to ensure plant, and buildings and structures that are used as workplaces, are safely designed (ss27, 28).
- The duty of manufacturers and suppliers to ensure plant or substances are safely manufactured and safe to use (ss29, 30).
- The duty of a person not to recklessly engage in conduct that may place another person at a workplace in danger of serious injury (s32).
When is conduct negligent?
Under section 39E(1) of the OHS Act, conduct is negligent if it involves:
- (a) a great falling short of the standard of care that would have been taken by a reasonable person in the circumstances in which the conduct was engaged in; and
- (b) a high risk of—
- (i) death; or
- (ii) serious injury; or
- (iii) serious illness.
In determining whether conduct engaged in by a body corporate is negligent under section 39E(2):
- (a) what matters is the conduct engaged in by the body corporate itself; and
- (b) it does not matter whether the conduct is, or is not, conduct imputed to the body corporate under s143; and
- (c) it does not matter whether any of the body corporate’s officers were involved in all or any part of the conduct; and
- (d) the standard to be applied under s39E(1)(a) is the standard of care that would have been taken by a reasonable body corporate in the circumstances in which the conduct was engaged in.

Industrial Manslaughter Laws in Australia
Jurisdiction | Act | Fault Element | Maximum penalty |
Victoria | Section 39G of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. | Negligent conduct, as defined in section 39E. | Individuals: 25 years imprisonment. Corporations: 100,000 penalty units ($19,231,000 as of 2024). |
Commonwealth | Section 30A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, effective from 1 July 2024. This offence applies to the Commonwealth public sector. | Reckless or negligent as to whether the conduct would cause the death. | Individuals: 25 years imprisonment. Corporations: $18 million. |
Queensland | Sections 34C and 34D of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. | Negligence about causing the death of the worker by the conduct. | Individuals: a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment. Corporations: 100,000 penalty units ($16,130,000 as of July 2024). |
New South Wales | Sections 34C, 244B and 244BA of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, effective from 16 September 2024. | Grossly negligent conduct. | Individuals: a maximum of 25 years’ imprisonment. Corporations: $20,000,000 penalty units. |
Northern Territory | Section 34B of the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011. | Reckless or negligent about the conduct. | Individuals: Life imprisonment. Corporations: 65,000 penalty units ($12,025,000 as of 1 July 2024). |
Western Australia | Section 30A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), effective from 31 March 2022. | Knowing that the conduct is likely to cause the death of, or serious harm to, an individual, and the person engages in conduct in disregard of that likelihood. If the person is an officer of a PCBU, the conduct must also be attributable to any neglect by the officer. | Individuals: Imprisonment for 20 years and a fine of $5,000,000. Corporations: Fines up to $10 million. |
South Australia | Section 30A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. | Engages in conduct with gross negligence or is reckless to the risk of death or serious injury. | Individuals: A maximum of 20 years imprisonment. Corporations: Fines of up to $18 million. |
Australian Capital Territory | Section 34A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. | Reckless or negligent about causing the death. | Individuals: 20 years imprisonment. Corporations: $16.5 million. |
Tasmania | Section 29C of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. | Negligent about causing the death by the conduct, or reckless as to the risk of death or serious injury or illness. | Individuals: 21 years imprisonment. Corporations: $18 million. |
Industrial Manslaughter Cases
The Victorian Supreme Court delivered the first sentence under the workplace manslaughter provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 since its introduction in July 2020 in the case of R v LH Holding & Hanna [2024] VSC 90.
Case summary:
- LH Holding Management Pty Ltd and its sole director and shareholder, Laith Hanna, were charged with workplace manslaughter under section 39G(1) of the OHS Act following the death of Michael Tsahrelias.
- The incident occurred at a stonemasonry factory in Somerton, where LH Holding operated and Mr. Tsahrelias was subcontracted.
- Mr Hanna was operating a forklift to move an empty A frame rack when the forklift toppled over, causing the death of Mr Tsahrelias.
- Both LH Holding and Mr Hanna pleaded guilty to their respective charges.
- The maximum penalty for a body corporate for this offence is 100,000 penalty units, which equated to $18,174,000 at the time of the offending.
- Mr. Hanna, as an officer of LH Holding, was also charged under section 144(1)(a) of the OHS Act, with a maximum penalty of 10,000 penalty units, equating to $1,817,400 at the time of the offending.
Procedural history:
- Following a WorkSafe investigation, LH Holding and Mr. Hanna were charged with offences against the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic).
- After a committal hearing in the Magistrates’ Court, both LH Holding and Mr. Hanna pleaded guilty to their respective charges on 25 July 2023.
- The case was heard over three days in October and December 2023, with victim impact statements from the Tsahrelias family being presented.
Submissions:
- The prosecution, represented by Ms M Tittensor SC and Ms A French, argued that the offences were serious and that the accident was reasonably foreseeable.
- The defence, represented by Mr R O’Neill and Ms A Beech, acknowledged the gravity of the offences and expressed remorse on behalf of the accused.
Judgement:
- Judge Croucher J noted that this was the first prosecution of workplace manslaughter in the state.
- The judge found that the accident was reasonably foreseeable and that there was a great falling short of the standard of care that would have been taken by a reasonable person in the circumstances.
- The judge sentenced LH Holding to a fine of $1,300,000 and Mr. Hanna to a two-year community correction order with 200 hours of unpaid community work and a requirement to complete a forklift safety course.
- The judge also ordered LH Holding and Mr. Hanna to pay $120,000 in compensation to Mr. Tsahrelias’s sister and dismissed claims for compensation by his parents.
Why you need to see a workplace manslaughter lawyer
The penalties for individuals and corporations accountable for breaches of workplace safety duties that result in death are extremely severe, with substantial fines and lengthy imprisonment sentences. Industrial manslaughter laws in Australia signal the gravity of workplace safety obligations and the legal consequences of negligence or recklessness.
If you or someone you know is facing industrial manslaughter charges, our experienced criminal defence lawyers are here to help. We provide strategic, compassionate, and expert legal support to protect your rights and achieve the best possible outcome. Contact us today.