As Tasmania locks in 1 January 2013 for the commencement of its mirror Work Health and Safety Act, employers in all harmonised jurisdictions have been urged to plug their "compliance gaps".
As a leaked BHP Billiton email adds further fuel to the fire in the enterprise-agreement dispute between the company and Queensland coal miners, a union boss explains why employees in certain safety-critical roles must remain outside the "management structure".
Recent safety prosecutions in the UK have shed some light on the types of offences that individuals might be jailed for under Australia's new work health and safety laws, and how the "reasonably practicable" test will be applied, OHS lawyers say.
Tasmanian employers that believe they haven't been given enough time to come to grips with harmonised safety laws have been assured - by the State Government - that the new legislation is unlikely to take effect in July this year.
Employers, workers and volunteers have been assured that the duty to ensure workplace safety is much the same as it was prior to harmonisation, and that regulators are unlikely to increase prosecution rates under the new regime.
An insolvency practitioner appointed to a PCBU must exercise due diligence under harmonised OHS laws, lawyers have advised. Also in this article, lawyers have outlined what the new laws mean for the Queensland construction industry.
SWA releases harmonisation Q&A on volunteers; NT employers fined over Canadian worker's death; Queensland Govt warns against mine-safety-levy cut, is accused of rushing harmonised WHS laws; Western Australia's new workers' comp dispute system gets underway; and WorkSafe WA releases FIFO fatigue alert.
A NSW employer and its director have been handed hefty safety fines for "knowingly and deliberately" failing to provide fall protection for workers demolishing an eight-metre-high roof.
