Browsing: Workplace safety court and tribunal decisions | Page 12

A site's principal contractor has been ordered to pay damages to another company's director who sustained serious injuries falling through a void he knew was not properly protected. A judge found the principal was obligated to guard against unsafe acts of temporary inadvertence or inattention.

An "exasperated" manager did not bully workers by using allegedly hostile tones to "hustle" them to get on with their tasks, a commission has found, highlighting that managers are "entitled to some latitude" when assessing the manner they adopt to supervise personnel.

A company director has been convicted and fined for a string of "disturbing" acts of bullying against two apprentices, including at a work Christmas party. A court found his company's safety failings were solely attributable to him.

A company that ignored a worker's requests for help to maintain equipment, forcing him to perform ad hoc fixes he wasn't qualified for, has been ordered to pay him damages after a machine part exploded in his face.

Two PCBUs have been convicted and fined a total of more than $530,000 for multiple WHS contraventions, after a heavy object fell and smashed a glass atrium roof, seriously injuring a site worker and a passing courier.

A major employer has failed to block a safety directive, requiring it to take hundreds of vehicles out of action in certain electrical storms, by claiming the rule actually increases the risk of workers being struck by lightning.

A senior company executive has been found guilty of recklessness and faces jail, in the latest case involving the deaths of four police officers in a road incident caused by a drug-affected truck driver.

A new worker sustained an amputation injury after receiving a five-minute training session on a hazardous machine with an out-of-reach emergency stop button, a court has found in fining her employer.

Sydney Trains has been: ordered to reinstate a worker dismissed for testing positive to cocaine metabolites after returning from leave; and censured for failing to learn from previous criticisms of its approach to enforcing its drug and alcohol policy.

In a case highlighting the remote-work-related WHS duties of employers and workers, the Fair Work Commission has upheld the pay sanction imposed on a teacher who drank from a cask of wine in a video meeting.