In the lead up to the busy Easter holiday period, and in light of a recent fatality, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is urging employers to ensure safe practices are in place at roadwork sites. It also advises employers to reduce the risks of psychological injury through supervisory support and other measures.
Many employers resort to "blaming and retraining" workers when an OHS incident occurs, but improving safety hinges on improving leadership, says Norton Rose Lawyers partner Michael Tooma.
A self-employed builder who failed to ensure his safety instructions were complied with has been fined in the NSW IRC, after a site coordinator fell three metres from a mezzanine floor.
A NSW project manager, who failed to implement a construction site safety plan, has become the fifth party to be fined over a workplace fall, which left an inexperienced worker with severe head injuries.
Workers who receive high levels of support from their managers are less likely to experience shoulder, neck and back pain compared to workers who receive little to no supervisory support, a US study has found.
A supervisor who was discovered resting in a pre-start room with a "fatigued" co-worker was rightly demoted for breaching his employer's "napping guidelines" and putting the safety of others at risk, Fair Work Australia has found.
Direct supervision is critical to ensuring hazardous work is undertaken in the correct sequence, the NSW IRC has found in fining an employer $270,000 after a worker's leg was amputated.
A novel WorkSafe Victoria experiment - inspired by a famous 1960s study on World War II - has highlighted the detrimental effect productivity-obsessed supervisors can have on workplace health and safety.
A workplace supervisor could spend up to 20 months in a Victorian prison for failing to ensure the safety of a young worker, who was killed after being directed by the supervisor to drive an overloaded truck with faulty brakes down a steep slope.
A NSW employer that appointed inexperienced site coordinators for a construction project has been fined $300,000, after workers were left "totally exposed" to the risk of falling. Also in this article, an employer has been fined $90,000 after a worker fell 14 metres.
