Workers in the legal profession will reveal whether their employers are complying with their proactive duties to tackle bullying and harassment, under a follow-up equal opportunity review announced in South Australia. Meanwhile, safety professionals have been asked to apply to present on ideas for improving WHS outcomes in Tasmania.
The final quarter of 2023 was marked by wholesale WHS changes affecting all duty holders. This report examines the amendments, as well as changes to other laws and all the need-to-know caselaw from the period.
A WHS regulator has outlined the kinds of risks that employers are obligated to assess for workers travelling to remote regions, while a fellow regulator has explained how WHS laws operate in relation to high-temperature hazards.
An employer's multiple efforts to engineer out a safety risk failed to prevent a worker's serious crush injuries because of the absence of supplementary administrative controls, a court has found in fining the employer.
A magistrate has slammed a company's "casual approach" to WHS, which "fell well below the standards required" of it, finding a worker would have been conscious of and avoided placing himself in a hazardous position if proper systems had been implemented.
A court has rejected a worker's claim that her employer unlawfully threatened to lodge a workers' compensation claim, against her will, after she raised safety concerns affecting her mental health.
Significant amendments were made to workplace health and safety laws in every Australian jurisdiction in the third quarter of 2023, including many increasing penalties and making it easier to prosecute duty holders. This major report - the only one of its kind in the country - examines all the need-to-know legislative changes, workers' compensation developments and court decisions from July, August and September.
Unsafe workplace layouts, and training and first-aid failings, were among the WHS issues that attracted improvement notices in a major compliance project targeting violence and aggression in a hazardous industry.