Victims of workplace safety crimes and their families would be able to speak up in court more often, with dated occupational health and safety sentencing laws set to be overhauled.
A review of OHS offences by the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council, released on Wednesday, made 12 recommendations after finding practices were failing to meet community expectations.
Ordered by the state government in January 2024, the review ran the rule over OHS cases since relevant workplace safety legislation came into operation 20 years ago.
It highlighted how injured workers and the families of others who lost their lives while on the job were not always able to have input during sentencing.
Under current laws, victim impact statements can only be made by people who have been harmed as a "direct result" of an offence.
The review pointed out most OHS offences involve failing to reduce or eliminate a risk, and it can often be difficult to establish causation from a specific risk to someone being harmed.
The council has suggested legislative change to widen impact statement eligibility and a restorative justice trial to allow offenders and victims to voluntarily thrash out issues outside of court.
Maximum fines for companies and individuals caught breaching health and safety duties should also be increased five-fold to $10 million as a meaningful deterrent, the council said.
It found almost $2.5 million of fines for OHS offences are going unpaid each year, with most of the culprits companies that deregistered after their offending.
The review recommended the possible introduction of "successor liability" in the state to hold corporations responsible when they rise from the ashes of a deregistered company, a process known as phoenixing.
Other suggested changes include an annual review of all unpaid court fines, legislated sentencing guidelines and new WorkSafe policies to encourage prosecutors to seek "underutilised" health and safety undertakings and adverse publicity orders.
The Victorian government is yet to publicly respond to the recommendations.
