The suicide rate among Australia's mining workers is higher than most others and appears to be increasing, according to Melbourne researchers, who identify the likely reasons for this, and call for companies and their owners to do more to protect the individuals who have "produced and supported their wealth".
Employers and insurers will be banned from attending injured workers' medical appointments, under one of hundreds of provisions of a major Bill that completely rewrites Western Australia's workers' compensation laws, and implements the recommendations from a legislative review conducted nearly a decade ago.
Three employers have been fined a total of nearly $1.5 million over an explosion and a structural collapse, including one company that failed to ensure customers transported dangerous goods in a safe manner, and a business that failed to properly instruct personnel on an unfamiliar work procedure.
Mining giant Fortescue Metals Group could be fined up to nearly $1.9 million, after being charged with dozens of counts of failing to produce documents, relating to alleged s-xual harassment at its sites, in the first case launched under Western Australia's version of the national model WHS laws.
A crane supplier that was fined for safety breaches at a site, where one of its workers was killed, has failed to convince a superior court it had little control over the relevant activities. But the court ordered a retrial, finding a key matter was overlooked by all parties.
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.
