Unions say employers have the ultimate responsibility to keep workers safe, not governments.
Central Queensland company Arrow Property Maintenance was yesterday fined $135,000 over the death of 16-year-old Rueben Barnes in November last year.
The teenager was electrocuted while installing insulation at a house near Rockhampton.
It was one of four fatalities linked to the Federal Government's axed insulation scheme.
The company says the Federal Government should shoulder some of the blame, but Craig Allen from the Queensland Council of Unions says it needs to stop passing the buck.
"As the court said, we're not in the industrial revolution era, we are in the 21st century," he said.
"There is an expectation of communities that workers come home alive after they go to work each day.
"We have had Workplace Health and Safety legislation in Queensland since 1995 - there are clear protocols in that legislation of what the responsibilities of employers are in this state.
"Do not blame federal governments, blame yourselves".
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