Browsing: Remote work | Page 12

• "Explore" office WHS risks with Comcare tool; and
  
• Technical innovations win WHS awards.

A major employer has been fined for failing to ensure three workers, who were required to walk dozens of kilometres in high temperatures, were trained to identify and control the risks associated with exposure to extreme conditions. One of the workers died.

A pandemic-era study has shown that workers' experiences with flexible work have been "very positive", with benefits to wellbeing, while highlighting gaps in WHS support for these workers. It has identified seven elements that support safe flexible work.

An employer that made wholesale changes to a unit's roster has been found liable for a worker's insomnia, in a decision exploring whether abolishing an employee's ability to work from home constitutes a transfer or the removal of an employment benefit.

The Black Dog Institute has called for employers to implement organisation-level measures like "problem solving committees" to facilitate job control, and to allow for a "steady post-pandemic workplace transition". It warns that two decades of "seismic changes" have adversely affected workers' mental health.

• Vaccine mandate satisfies safety consultation duties; and
  
• FIFO workers directed to get the COVID jab in WA.

Workforce exhaustion has surged to the top of the list of "people-related risks" likely to impact businesses, with implications for workplace cultures and workers' comp costs, but many employers are not addressing the issue, a survey of nearly 1,500 risk managers and HR professionals has shown.

The struggle of workers to "decode" written communications, which are prolific in remote-work set-ups, is triggering a hunter-gatherer survival mechanism and perceptions of being bullied, a senior WHS researcher says.

In a major report on Australia's "forced experiment" - widespread working-from-home arrangements for the pandemic - the Productivity Commission has detailed employers' WHS duties to remote workers, examined the "right to disconnect" and called for an upcoming WHS review to address the issue.

A recent multi-million dollar COVID-19 workers' comp case shows that employers need to be aware of the risk of sending workers into high-risk environments, and that their responsibilities aren't limited to the workplace, two senior employment lawyers say.