Occupational Health and Safety legislation in Australia originated from a 1956 building site, where employees were hoisting hot buckets of bitumen up to the roof of a five storey building.
One of the buckets spilled hot bitumen onto the worker below, and the High Court held in this case in the worker's favour, that the system of working that had been instituted was a negligent one, and that the employer was under an obligation to impose a safe system of work and not expose the workers to an unreasonable risk of injury. This story formed the foundation for OHS in Australia and is cited time and time again in industrial accident cases nowadays, that the employer's obligation is, in those terms, not to expose workers to unreasonable risk of injury. The above story is really as simple as it gets. Basically as a result of employees having to use a makeshift system of getting the hot bitumen to the roof, the employer was found to be negligent. This responsibility is passed onto employers today, requiring them to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to ensure employees won't be injured. Although some would argue that the legislation has gone too far to protect employees and is putting employers under unnecessary pressure, it's intention has been to place human life over profit. | 
