Queensland health and safety reps will be forbidden from halting unsafe work, unions will be hobbled by tighter entry rules, and maximum fines for electrical safety breaches will be 650 per cent higher, under a Bill introduced to the Queensland Parliament yesterday.
The recent Federal Court decision involving a Visy HSR should remind employers that courts will "always" impose hefty deterrence penalties in safety-related adverse action cases, an OHS lawyer says.
Employers get more value from their health and safety reps if they consult them on "big ticket items", such as the development of safety management systems, rather than leaving such decisions entirely up to senior managers, the Comcare National Conference in Canberra has heard.
A Victorian employer and one of its managers have been handed high-range adverse action fines, after they suspended and issued a final warning to an HSR because he tagged as unsafe two defective forklifts, and then sought to "disguise" their motives in the Federal Court.
Abetz new Employment Minister, Abbott announces ministry; HSRs in SA must complete WHS bridging course; and WHS exemptions granted to Queensland boiler operators.
Safety and health reps could be blocked from suspending unsafe work, while all contractors will be covered by site safety management systems, under a plan to overhaul Queensland's mine safety laws.
Great safety leaders proactively identify conflicts between written safety policies and actual procedures, then work to remove them, according to leadership expert Nola Hennessy.
A health and safety rep, who was accused of repeatedly pushing an office door into his manager, was fairly dismissed, a Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled in finding the manager had no reason to lie about the incident.
The Fair Work Commission has identified a "difficulty" in the model WHS Act's rules on provisional improvement notices, in finding it has no jurisdiction to review an employer's decision to "take down" a PIN issued by a health and safety rep.
