Browsing: Jurisdiction (VIC) | Page 8

A leading legal expert on technology and the workplace has warned of the WHS risks and implications of using "bossware" to track workers' productivity, including that it can trigger cease-work orders under safety laws.

Australia has taken a big leap towards banning engineered stone products, with the country's WHS ministers agreeing to release a "powerful and compelling" Safe Work Australia report that recommends the ban, and warns there is no evidence that alternative measures can curb the alarming rate of silicosis in engineered stone workers.

Two related companies, and a director who s-xually harassed teenage employees, have been fined a total of $290,000 for workplace safety breaches, with their failings including the absence of a specific reporting process in their online bullying and harassment policy.

An employer has been reprimanded for failing to properly discipline a bully and allowing further "reprehensible" conduct to occur, but the victim has been refused stop-bullying orders, after the company made a number of changes to the workplace to make it safe for him to return to work.

• Employers fined over crane and public-road fatalities; and
  
• "World leading" workers' comp laws pass in Tas.

Court Services Victoria (CSV) has been convicted and ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in penalties, in relation to a toxic workplace culture that contributed to the suicide death of a lawyer and to other workers taking stress leave.

Significant amendments were made to workplace health and safety laws in every Australian jurisdiction in the third quarter of 2023, including many increasing penalties and making it easier to prosecute duty holders. This major report - the only one of its kind in the country - examines all the need-to-know legislative changes, workers' compensation developments and court decisions from July, August and September.

With National Safe Work Month starting this week, employers are being urged to host SafeTea chats, focus on issues like mental health and workloads, and provide safer workplaces for women. Employers have also been warned to properly maintain their defibrillators.

Workers taking prescription medicinal cannabis for medical conditions are protected by anti-discrimination laws, but critical health and safety matters can sideline those protections, industrial and employment lawyers say.

• One regulator charges another with recklessness after suicide;
  
• Host fined $350k over fatal impalement of labour-hire worker; and
  
• New national dangerous goods Code taking effect in Vic.