A major work health and safety Bill has passed in Queensland, with amendments aimed at facilitating a plan that could extend industrial manslaughter provisions to bystander deaths, and ensure multiple duty holders can be charged with manslaughter after a fatality.
A PCBU has successfully paused the operation of a WHS notice by arguing such a step will not affect the safety of workers or others, and that in the absence of a stay, it could be forced to overhaul its safety management system unnecessarily.
A worker who claims his schizophrenia was exacerbated by workplace bullying and harassment has been denied compensation, with a commission accepting the exacerbation was probably caused by a medical error.
Some high physical and mental workloads can be unmodifiable and lead to poor health outcomes, but altering direct and indirect factors can influence a worker's perception of their workload, facilitating their wellbeing, researchers say.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has released new guidelines to help employers monitor, measure, analyse and evaluate their workplace health and safety performance, and warned against over-relying on lag indicators.
The commencement date for South Australia's new offence of industrial manslaughter has been confirmed, while a WHS regulator has announced a crackdown on poor housekeeping in an industry with a high rate of serious musculoskeletal disorders.
An injured worker has lost his claim that under his rehabilitation plan, he should have been provided with subscriptions to health monitoring mobile phone apps, and language training software.
The High Court has agreed to consider quashing the application of allegedly outdated judgments that bar damages for psychiatric injuries caused by dismissal processes, in the case of a worker who was subjected to a sham dismissal after an incident on a work trip.
A PCBU exhibited "multiple failures at management levels" to respond to violent workplace incidents, which escalated after it accepted additional high-risk clients and led to workers being assaulted, a court has found.
Employers have been reminded of their WHS duties to pregnant and parent workers, and urged to make ergonomic adjustments where needed, after a major project found these workers continue to face "vast discrimination, disadvantage, and bias".
