Frontline public service workers will be afforded the same anti-violence protections as law enforcement officers, under a Commonwealth Bill inspired by the stabbing of a worker, and a review that called for legislative reforms and safer workplace designs.
All work processes where workers might be exposed to respirable silica will be considered high risk and subjected to tougher WHS regulations unless risk assessments prove otherwise, under one of a string of changes agreed by Australia's WHS ministers.
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 powers of elected health and safety representatives and protections against safety discrimination in the offshore sector have been stepped up and aligned with those in WHS laws, in a Bill introduced some six years after a parliamentary inquiry warned the changes were needed to combat a "culture of fear and reprisal".
Workers will be protected from the health and safety risks associated with "availability creep" and excessive hours through the right to "refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact, or attempted contact, from an employer" outside of working hours, under agreed legislative changes.
Australia has moved a step closer to harmonising the right to disconnect from work, with a parliamentary inquiry recommending the move after hearing workers across multiple sectors are being exhausted and injured "to no good purpose".
