Browsing: Legislation, regulation and caselaw | Page 1

The jailing of an operations manager, the passage of right-to-disconnect laws and significant WHS and workers' compensation amendments were among the highlights of the first quarter of 2024. This major report covers all jurisdictions and looks at everything you need to know from the start of the year.

• WHS penalties increase significantly as ACT Bill passes; and
  
• HVNL amended by host jurisdiction.

An appeals commission has upheld a decision in favour of a worker who suffered a psychological injury from her employer's initial communications on a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. It rejected the employer's reasonable disciplinary action defence on the basis that the worker was injured before this action occurred.

• Workplace disasters often linked to ignored concerns: lawyer; and
  
• Incident notification requirements amended in Vic.

An employer has been found liable for a worker's Achilles injury and ordered to pay him damages, after it negligently failed to change the flat battery on a piece of powered mobile plant.

A company director charged over a forklift incident was recently cleared by a court of breaching his WHS due diligence duties. In this article, his lawyers explain the reasons behind the decision, and what it says about the reach of officers' safety obligations.

• Inquiry examining impact of AI on work intensity and rights;
  
• Workplace security measures targeted by WHS regulator;
  
• Haul trucks have the energy of 948km/h cars, employers warned;
  
• Safety Code remade for solar sector in Qld; and
  
• New Vic safety chief to oversee stone ban and scheme changes.

An employer's work system that required workers to step up onto a platform up to 80 times a day would have involved a breach of duty if an employee had been able to prove the system caused his injuries, a court has found in a case with a seizure and a fall.

An injured worker has proved that medicinal cannabis is a reasonable treatment his employer should pay for, even though it has not improved his functionality.

A PCBU that was charged with fatality-related WHS breaches, before the case was dropped, appears remarkably lucky to have escaped prosecution, with a coroner identifying numerous safety problems with the machine that caused the death, and finding the killed worker was never provided with proper safety instructions.