Maurice Michael O'Sullivan v The Crown in the Right of the State of New South Wales (Department of Education and Training) [2003] NSWIRComm 74

Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales in Court Session

CITATION : Maurice Michael O'Sullivan v The Crown in the Right of the State of New South Wales (Department of Education and Training) [2003] NSWIRComm 74 PROSECUTOR Maurice Michael O'Sullivan PARTIES : DEFENDANT The Crown in the Right of the State of New South Wales (Department of Education and Training) FILE NUMBER: IRC 607, 608, 609, 610, 611 of 2001 CORAM: Walton J Vice-President CATCHWORDS : Occupational health and safety - Assault of teachers aide special at special purpose school - Charges as to failures in relation to human resources, information, training, counselling and equipment - Plea of not guilty - Findings of fact - Incident occurs during teachers strike - Information in relation to students - Functional assessment of students - Human resources at school - Duress alarms - Training arrangements - Relevant general principles - Contention risk arose before alleged failures - Causal nexus - "unpredictable" or "uncontrollable" risk - Nature of risk - Manner employer exposes employee to risk - Unnecessary to eliminate entire risk - Particular aspects of charges - Jones and Dunkel issues - Defences - Offences in Matter Nos. IRC607, 608 and 609 of 2001 proven - Defendant not guilty of offences in Matter Nos. IRC610 and 611 of 2001 - Matter to be set down for sentence. LEGISLATION CITED : Occupational Health and Safety Act 1983 s15(1) Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 Carrington Slipways Pty Ltd v Callaghan (1985) 11 IR 467 Drake Personnal Ltd t/as Drake Industrial v WorkCover Authority (NSW) (Inspector Ch'ng) (1999) 90 IR 432 Dyers v The Queen (2002) 192 ALR 181 Environmental Protection Authority v Sydney Water Corporation (1997) 98 A Crim R 481 Haynes v CI&D Manufacturing Pty Ltd (1994) 60 IR 149 CASES CITED : Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298 R v Riscuta, R v Niga [2003] NSWCCA 6 WorkCover Authority of NSW (Inspector Bernard) v Rail Infrastructure Corporation (2001) 109 IR 209 WorkCover Authority (NSW) (Inspector Glass) v Kellogg (Aust.) Pty. Ltd (No 1) (1999) 101 IR 253 WorkCover Authority of New South Wales (Inspector Keelty) v Crown in the Right of the State Police of New South Wales (Police Service of New South Wales) (No 2) (2001) 104 IR 268 WorkCover Authority of New South Wales (Inspector Patton) v Fletcher Constructions Australia Limited [2002] NSWIRComm 316 WorkCover Authority of New South Wales (Inspector Penfold) v Fernz Construction Materials Ltd (No 1) (1999) 91 IR 119 HEARING DATES: 11/14/2001; 11/15/2001; 11/22/2001; 02/01/2002; 04/02/2002; 04/03/2002; 05/28/2002; 06/04/2002 DATE OF JUDGMENT: 03/31/2003