Two Western Australian employers have been ordered to pay more than $80,000 in fines and costs for separate high-risk work breaches, one of which created "a high potential for serious injury or death from electrocution or explosion".
A female Queensland worker, who suffered a psychological injury after using shared toilet facilities, has had her compensation appeal dismissed in the Industrial Court. Also in this article, two employers have been fined for guarding and emergency-rescue breaches.
A NSW employer has been fined $250,000, after the Industrial Court found its failure to ensure an operator knew how to secure a stationary vehicle resulted in the death of a newly employed labourer.
A "litany of near disasters" and the increasing injury rate in the Queensland mining sector have been linked to an influx of inexperienced, poorly-trained workers, and the appointment of supervisors with little understanding of legislative requirements or hazard identification.
A NSW company director has been fined $30,000, after a 15-year-old apprentice labourer suffered horrific injuries, and later died in hospital, when he became entangled in an unguarded machine.
Employers must train workers in safely carrying out tasks with phosphoric acid and other hazardous substances, the NSW Industrial Court has stressed, after an apprentice suffered chemical burns to his face.
Employers must conduct "fresh" risk assessments when implementing or changing work tasks, the NSW Industrial Court has found, after a worker suffered burns to 18 per cent of his body in an explosion.
The Queensland Coroner has, in an inquest into a teenage worker's motorcycle death, questioned the reach of OHS awareness campaigns, and called for proposed PPE rules to be introduced into law.
The Tasmanian Government will consider strengthening its mirror WHS Act, or developing stand-alone legislation, to improve the health and safety of workers under the age of 19, according to a review of the State's child-labour laws.
