Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (NSW) | Page 11

This major user-friendly report looks back at all the major and most interesting workplace safety and compensation developments from the start of the calendar year, including the ministerial vote on industrial manslaughter, multiple manslaughter charges, the widespread introduction of new psychosocial risk regulations, and a major WHS case involving the deaths of overseas students.

An ongoing investigation into an incident that could have resulted in a major methane explosion in a mine has highlighted the WHS duties to implement and maintain ventilation control plans underpinned by frequent inspections and tests.

• Fatality charge coincides with industrial gate warning;
  
• Long-term WHS exemption expiring in NSW; and
  
• Comcare releases Q&A on new psychosocial regulations.

A commission full bench has affirmed an earlier ruling revoking a WHS regulator's improvement notice issued to a site's principal contractor after a fatal fall.

A senior judge has described the ongoing spate of injuries and deaths in the roofing industry as "carnage", adding that the vast majority of incidents could have been avoided by using simple "well-known and effective safety precepts".

A PCBU has been fined for category-3 WHS breaches at a site where a fatality occurred - an incident that also led to the largest WHS-undertaking spend in NSW history.

A principal contractor has been convicted and fined over an incident where two workers were injured in a fall from an excavator bucket - an event that has already attracted a high-level WHS penalty and elicited an industry-wide warning from a judge.

A judge has referred one of his WHS rulings to a government minister, to highlight the prevalence of deaths and serious injuries from height work, and possibly inform legislative change.

This major OHS Alert report reviews all the need-to-know workplace health and safety and workers' comp developments from the past few months, including the passage of game-changing Respect@Work laws, numerous WHS amendments, COVID rulings, a state-first workplace manslaughter charge, and a record-smashing reckless conduct fine.

• Numerous duty holders fined, common safety breaches revealed; and
  
• World-first WHS guidelines for cobots released in NSW.