Message from the Executive Director
I am delighted to present the 2024-25 SafeWork SA Activity Report, capturing the highlights of a strong year for the Agency.
We secured the highest number of convictions for breaches to workplace safety laws in more than 10 years, delivering record fines totalling $2.37 million.
A total of 18 convictions across 14 separate matters were achieved in the South Australian Employment Tribunal in 2024-25.
We also increased our presence on work sites with 7715 recorded site visits in 2024-25, up from 6813 in 2023-24 and 5122 in 2022-23.
It was a significant year of legislative change. The financial year began with the introduction of a ban on engineered stone.
The ban prohibits the manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs from 1 July 2024.
South Australia implemented the ban in line with other states and territories to protect workers from the risk of fatal lung disease.
The start of July also saw the introduction of tough new laws to make industrial manslaughter a criminal offence and put employers on notice that the most serious health and safety breaches carry severe penalties.
Employers now face up to 20 years in prison or fines of up to $18 million if they are found to have caused the death of a worker through a reckless or grossly negligent breach of health and safety.
In September, State Parliament passed the Explosives Act 2024, which will replace the Explosives Act 1936. The new Act is intended to commence once regulations and supporting legislative documents have been developed.
The Portable Long Service Leave Bill 2024 also passed parliament in September, extending portable long service leave to the community services sector in South Australia from October 2025.
Our Educational activities continue to gain momentum with the launch of our HSR Strategy in December 2024.
Developed in conjunction with the SafeWork SA Advisory Committee, the strategy aims to increase the number of trained Health and Safety Representatives and ramp up support for existing HSRs to help them fulfil their critical role.
Our Education Advisors conducted 316 in-person engagements, up from 284 in 2023-24, while our new HSR Advisor hit the ground running, responding to more than 500 HSR and PCBU enquiries and requests.
The SafeWork SA help centre answered more than 16,000 calls and our licensing team processed more than 40,000 new and renewed licences.
Our inspectors also helped workers recover more than $166,000 in unpaid long service leave during the year.
In early 2025 we started developing a new approach to our proactive compliance campaigns by taking a deep dive into SafeWork SA and RetunToWork SA data to allow us to target specific businesses and injury types and monitor their safety performance thereafter.
The series of campaigns targeting the priority industries of Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing, Transport, Forestry and Healthcare rolled out on 1 July 2025 following several months of data analysis and planning.
Thank you to all of our staff and industry partners for their hard work to help deliver our significant achievement. I look forward to building on this success for the remainder of 2025 and beyond.
Glenn Farrell
Executive Director, SafeWork SA
