Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (NSW) | Page 8

An electricity company has spent nearly $14 million on a safety overhaul, and committed a further $1 million to safety undertakings to avoid prosecution over an electric-shock incident that occurred just months before one of its workers died in similar circumstances.

• WHS regulator targeting numerous NSW businesses;
  
• Key WHS measure for Cth parliamentary workplaces introduced; and
  
• WHS Regulations amended in WA.

A PCBU's feeble attempt to install edge protection after scaffolding was removed, at one of its sites, led to a worker sustaining traumatic fall injuries, and warranted a pre-discount fine of $320,000, a court has found.

WHS laws could be amended to cover the implementation of collision-avoidance technologies and improve the safety of workplace roads, with a regulator finding the technologies are often wrongly viewed as a "silver bullet".

• Comcare WHS case studies reveal psychosocial failings;
  
• WHS regulations and protections covered by gold and lead probe; and
  
• ACTU re-demands stone bans after alarming US findings.

A PCBU breached its WHS duties by failing to alert an industrial complex's owners corporation or strata manager to the dangers posed by a damaged gate, which ultimately fell and killed a worker, a court has found in convicting and fining the PCBU $375,000.

An employer has been cleared of WHS breaches relating to an incident where defective plant was left in service and caught fire, forcing workers to seek refuge and survive on stored air until they could be evacuated.

A PCBU has been convicted and fined $255,000 for exposing two "spotters" to the risk of serious injury or death, in a case highlighting that duty holders can be prosecuted and handed hefty fines where injuries have not occurred.

An employer charged with WHS breaches after a blast hurled rocks at workers inside an exclusion zone has escaped conviction, with a regulator failing to prove beyond reasonable doubt that appointing a supervisor with less than "optimal" experience was a breach of the employer's duty.

In this major must-read report, OHS Alert examines all the key workplace health and safety and workers' compensation developments from the second quarter of 2023, including a wide range of actual and proposed WHS amendments, a string of high-profile safety prosecutions, and concerns around surging burnout rates.