Browsing: Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Page 46

Determining liability for COVID-19 cases will involve a wide range of challenges, including where an employer has induced or encouraged workers to be somewhere where they are at risk of infection, or a worker has contracted the virus while working from home, according to one of Aon's WHS leaders.

• Employer fined $300k over disabling gas explosion;
  
• Average injury premium rate cut for "uncertain" times in WA; and
  
• Standards directory guides shift to essential products in pandemic.

With many workers now in their third or fourth week of working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, a psychologist and employee assistance expert has revealed how workers are coping with the isolation, the types of anxieties they're experiencing, and what employers can do to mitigate the mental health risks.

Australia's WHS regulators will apply a common-sense educative approach to dealing with workplaces struggling to comply with their WHS duties because of COVID-19, providing they make "genuine attempts" to comply with them, a new national policy released by Safe Work Australia says. SWA has also released a raft of new pandemic resources, including a workplace checklist.

The coronavirus pandemic poses major health risks to frontline workers, but other less obvious serious safety issues will arise from pandemic-related job insecurity and prolonged teleworking, a leading Australian occupational and environmental physician has warned.

• Qantas faces COVID-19-related WHS prosecution, says TWU; and
  
• Impatient company director fined for electrical safety breaches.

With many workers being forced to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, employers are being warned about Australia's complacency around fire safety and smoke alarm compliance.

Managers in senior WHS roles and other statutory positions will be the only fly-in-fly-out workers permitted to enter Queensland under a new coronavirus control plan. Meanwhile, mining giants BHP and Fortescue have revealed their latest strategies for protecting personnel from the pandemic.

• Special coronavirus assessments advised for vulnerable workers;
  
• COVID-19 logistics safety and fatality alerts issued in Vic; and
  
• Pandemic affects work injury claims and claimants in WA.

• SWA and APSC overhaul COVID-19 and remote work guidance; and
  
• Five ways to maintain mental health in pandemic.