Unions in Western Australia will be required to outline suspected breaches of the OSH Act and other laws in writing before they enter workplaces, if the Liberal Party retains power in the State election on Saturday.
A survey of CEOs and supervisors in the Western Australian construction sector has found that mandatory pre-employment safety training is helping employers reduce their injury costs.
Safe Work Australia's latest annual key statistics report shows that Australia's 1100 OHS inspectors issue about 60,000 notices a year. Also in this article, a work death involving an industrial door is being investigated in Queensland.
The risk posed by a protruding door handle on a cupboard in an office was obvious and could have been eliminated by an employer "without undue difficulty or expense", a Queensland judge has found in upholding a worker's damages claim.
A worker who suffers nausea, disorientation and headaches when he uses or is near computers and other electrical equipment has been awarded workers' compensation.
An OHS researcher, who examined the ability of employees to identify hazards immediately after completing safety inductions, has warned that many Australian managers and workers lack the hazard-identification skills needed to comply with the model WHS Act.
A Victorian worker, who sued his parents after he was injured on the family's tobacco farm, has successfully overturned a contributory negligence ruling, after the Court of Appeal found his parents were also negligent.
The duty to ensure workplace safety extends to careless and inattentive workers, a South Australian magistrate has stressed in fining an employer over an independent contractor's crush injuries.
A national employer that failed to implement any policies or procedures for transporting dangerous goods has been ordered to pay $45,000 in fines and costs in the NSW Land and Environment Court.
