South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts104—Powers of inspectors
(1) An inspector may
at any time, with any assistance the inspector considers necessary, without
any warrant other than this section—
(a)
enter any workplace; and
(b)
inspect and view any work, process or thing in the place; and
(c)
question a person in the place on a subject relevant to employment or an
industrial matter.
(2) An inspector must,
when entering or as soon as practicable after entering a place under this
section, produce his or her identity card for inspection by the occupier or
person in charge of the place.
(3) An inspector may
require the production of a time book, paysheet, notice, record, list,
indenture of apprenticeship or other document required to be kept by this Act
or any other Act and may inspect, examine and copy it.
(4) In addition to the
powers set out in subsections (1) and (3), if an inspector has reason to
believe that a document required to be kept by an employer under this Act or
any other Act is not accessible during an inspection under
subsection (3), the inspector may, by notice in writing to an employer,
require the employer to produce the document to the inspector within a
reasonable period (of at least 24 hours) specified by the inspector.
(4a) A document
produced under subsection (3) or (4) may be retained by the inspector for
examination and copying (and, accordingly, the inspector may take it away),
subject to the qualification that the inspector must then return the document
within 7 days.
(5) However—
(a) the
inspector may not retain an original document if the employer supplies a copy
of it to the inspector for the inspector's own use; and
(b) the
inspector may not retain the original of a document that is required for the
day-to-day operations of the employer (but the inspector may copy it at the
time of its production).
(6) It is the duty of
an employer at all reasonable times to facilitate, as far as practicable, the
exercise by an inspector of powers under this section.
(7) If an inspector
puts a question to a person through an interpreter, the question will, for the
purposes of this Act, be taken to have been put to the person by the inspector
and an answer to the question given by the person to the interpreter will be
taken to have been given to the inspector (and in any legal proceedings it
will be presumed that the interpreter's translation of the answer is the
person's answer to the question as put by the inspector unless it is shown
that the interpreter mistranslated the question or the answer).
(8) A person must
not—
(a)
hinder or obstruct an inspector in the exercise of a power conferred by or
under this section; or
(b)
refuse an inspector entrance to a place the inspector is authorised to enter
under subsection (1); or
(c)
refuse or fail to answer truthfully a question put under subsection (1);
or
(d)
fail, without lawful excuse, to comply with a requirement of an inspector
acting under this section.
Maximum penalty: $1 250.