Browsing: Remote work | Page 11

Rio Tinto has committed to applying its operational safety and risk processes to its camps and village facilities, and urgently auditing and remedying any unsafe facilities, in response to the damning report on its workplace culture of bullying, harassment and racism.

With the Omicron outbreak likely to delay return-to-office plans for many businesses around Australia, employers should heed the findings of a new study on the physical toll that working from home can have on workers' bodies, and the need for preventive action.

An employer has been found guilty of safety breaches and fined $400,000 over the death of a lone worker, for failing to provide a two-person rule and "another set of eyes" to warn of dangers and help in emergencies.

• Harassment prosecutions flagged on launch of FIFO program; and
  
• WHS scrutiny of suppliers stepped up in ACT.

In a case examining employers' safety duties around premises they don't control, an appeals court has rejected a claim that a company negligently contributed to its employee's fall - which attracted a $1 million damages award - at a site with "rudimentary" facilities.

Managing psychosocial risks is critical not only to prevent mental health injuries but the occurrence of "major accidents", new guidance material from a WHS regulator has stressed.

Australian researchers have found pandemic-era working arrangements are helping workers manage the work impacts of a serious health condition that affects many women and costs billions of dollars in lost productivity.

• Workplace violence increasing, other injury rates "stagnating"; and
  
• Work from home increases FDV risks, employers have duty to act.

• Related companies commit identical WHS breaches in two states; and
  
• Are you going home on time today? Your health needs it.

COVID-driven telework arrangements, which are likely to become permanent practices, are creating new psychosocial risks arising from "intense virtual team collaboration", and must be managed, according to a major study by Europe's peak work safety body.