Employers must tread very carefully when deciding whether to dismiss permanently injured workers, even when "armed with volumes of supporting medical evidence", lawyers warn.
A new Safe Work Australia report has outlined how to manage the potential health and safety risks of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through the hierarchy of controls.
"Explicit" OHS commitment needed for Government tenders; Workplace cultures improved with suicide-prevention strategies; and Q-COMP and WorkSafe ACT awards open today.
An injured leading hand who was sacked after performing selected duties for more than a decade has failed in his bid for reinstatement, after the NSW IRC found it would be unreasonable to require his employer to "manufacture a job" to accommodate him.
Recent safety prosecutions in the UK have shed some light on the types of offences that individuals might be jailed for under Australia's new work health and safety laws, and how the "reasonably practicable" test will be applied, OHS lawyers say.
Two NSW company directors charged over a workplace death have failed in their High Court bid to have the case against them dismissed based on the landmark Kirk case.
Employers must consider previously unthought-of hazards - such as typing and handling mail - when conducting risk assessments, or risk breaching the manual task provisions of the harmonised WHS Regulations, according to a specialist workplace lawyer.
Global hazardous chemicals system takes effect under model laws; Queensland employer fined for maintenance failure after death; Free Tasmanian service to boost worker health and productivity; and Western Australia's veteran Mines Minister announces retirement.
Fair Work Australia has dismissed an engineer's beard-related unfair dismissal claim after it found it was not unusual or unlawful to require employees to modify their appearance for OHS reasons. Also in this article, a Victorian worker who injured his back eight years ago has been granted leave to seek damages for a mental disorder.