Karl Luke

Karl has over 20 years' experience practising as both a barrister and a solicitor advising on a broad range of workplace legal issues. His practice specifically focuses on industrial relations, employment law, Work Health and Safety law, and workers' compensation.

Karl has advised the Commonwealth Government statutory agency, Safe Work Australia, on a range of issues involving Work Health and Safety laws and has an interest in the governance of safety (due diligence), regulatory compliance, and safety system design.

Karl advises and acts for large corporations in workplace disputes. He also advises industry stakeholders on all aspects of the WorkCover scheme, and conducts high level litigation for WorkCover SA, self insured, and registered employers.

Karl has a law degree from University of Adelaide and holds a Graduate Diploma in Labour Relations from the University of Melbourne.

Recent experience includes:

• Acted and advised on a large safety due diligence project for the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC). This work has included the delivery of a governance safety system to ensure ASC’s officers can deliver excellence in the governance of safety and compliance with its due diligence obligations under the harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws. Further, Karl was enlisted to work with ASC’s General Manager of Safety to devise practical solutions to the integration of WHS laws into ASC’s systems whilst at the same time enhancing existing corporate management processes and streamlining ASC’s safety auditing tools to deliver meaningful safety solutions.
• Acted and advised ElectraNet to ensure compliance with health and safety duties and obligations. This included conducting a detailed analysis, review, and remediation of ElectraNet’s infrastructure and contractor management systems. Karl worked in collaboration with general counsel and executives to also deliver a safety governance system and safety management framework to ensure compliance with ElectraNet’s broader duties under harmonised WHS laws.
• Advised CSR on a recently completed project involving the strategic review of CSR’s obligations under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 (SA) with the outcome of reducing workers compensation premiums and obligations for the provision of ongoing employment to employees who have sustained compensable injuries and who are permanently restricted from returning to productive pre-injury duties.