The giant Public Sector and Commonwealth Superannuation Schemes (PSS/CSS), together with Catholic Superannuation Fund (CSF), have called on companies to dramatically improve their public disclosure of their workplace health and safety risk management.
Research commissioned by the funds as part of their joint investment governance program, and conducted by BT Financial Group and Monash University, shows that nearly two-thirds of companies in the S&P/ASX 200 Index do not publicly disclose their policy and strategy for workplace safety management.
Direct costs of work-related injury and disease in Australia are estimated to be $27 billion per year, with indirect costs potentially up to four times greater, according to the report.
PSS/CSS CEO Steve Gibbs says the market should be better informed about risks in this area because of its relationship with sound company management and the fact that it is both a financial cost and a potential reputation cost.
“Non-disclosure of workplace safety risk management means investors such as us have no idea whether the company has in place appropriate policies and procedures for dealing with the issue, no idea of the long term risk of inadequate management, or the long term impact on the value of the investment,” Gibbs says.
However, PSS/CSS and CSF stress that they are not calling for increased regulation. Instead, they would like to see public companies disclosing workplace health and safety performance and risk management commentary to the best practice reporting standards identified through their research.
— freya purnell
