OHS Alert
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Premium news and analysis for Australian workplace safety and workers' compensation professionals.en-auCopyright OHS Alerthourly11970-01-01T00:00+00:00OHS Alert
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/
Premium news and analysis for Australian workplace safety and workers' compensation professionals.How to reverse widespread EAP resistance
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82094
Workers often see referrals to employee assistance programs as "cloaking punishment", but establishing workplace EAP committees that liaise with vendors can help eradicate pushback, a human resources management expert says.OHS Alert2024-03-28T14:22:00+10:00Purported inaction on trauma did not force resignation, worker resisted medical requests
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82093
A commission has rejected a worker's allegations that she was forced to resign because her employer failed to shield her from vicarious trauma and its approach to psychological safety was "stuck in the 1990s".OHS Alert2024-03-28T12:30:00+10:00Fatal risk in CBD high-rise foreseeable but not addressed
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82092
A second duty holder has been fined over the death of an 80-year-old workplace visitor in a disused stairwell that posed an obvious risk of falling or entrapment, while a business has been fined over a fatality that followed its failure to identify the qualifications and competencies required for high-risk tasks.OHS Alert2024-03-28T10:39:00+10:00WHS regulator targets smoking; WHS Code adopted; more
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82091
* WHS regulator to enforce anti-smoking clauses;
* Regulator sends exclusion-zone warning with animated recreation;
* New WHS Code of Practice adopted by Tas; and
* Body-worn cameras adopted permanently for NT inspectors.OHS Alert2024-03-27T15:29:00+10:00Duties breached through supply and segregation flaws
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82090
An upstream duty holder has been prosecuted and fined for providing plant with a manual that was missing safety instructions for inspection and cleaning tasks. Another duty holder has been fined for failing to provide a demarcated safety zone for delivery drivers, which led to a double amputation.OHS Alert2024-03-27T14:06:00+10:00Are your safety boots preventing or causing injuries?
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82089
Safety shoes are important pieces of personal protective equipment, but they also cause a wide range of injuries and incidents, leading to workers abandoning them, a major review has found.OHS Alert2024-03-27T12:44:00+10:00Safety practice scrapped before fall, employer fined
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82088
Adhering to readily available Safe Work Australia guidance would have helped a PCBU prevent an incident where a worker fell through a penetration after mistaking its cover for spare plywood, a court has found in convicting and fining the business $450,000.OHS Alert2024-03-26T15:40:00+10:00Worker sacked after reporting WHS issues with uniform
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82087
An employer effectively dismissed a worker with autism after it refused to make safety accommodations for him when he reported experiencing sensory and health issues caused by his uniform, a commission has ruled.OHS Alert2024-03-26T14:21:00+10:00PCBU find $800k over death, dangerous work performed in poor lighting without hi-vis vests
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82086
An employer has been fined $800,000 for WHS breaches, after a designated work site migrated onto a dangerous stretch of road and a worker was killed by a vehicle driven by a colleague.OHS Alert2024-03-26T12:43:00+10:00Business owner fined; New injury laws commencing; more
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82085
* Man originally charged with recklessness gets category-2 fine;
* New injury laws start soon in WA, supporting regulations released; and
* WHS rules for workplace quad bikes made in Qld.OHS Alert2024-03-25T15:15:00+10:00Official fined for vague threat to WHS manager
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82084
A union and one of its officials have been handed fines totalling nearly $37,000, after a court found the latter made a frustrated comment that constituted a threat to the future career of a workplace health and safety manager.OHS Alert2024-03-25T14:00:00+10:00WHS ministers agree to new dust laws for all industries
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82083
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.OHS Alert2024-03-25T12:29:00+10:00WHS prosecution of JH restored by appeals court; and company charged over child's fall
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82082
An appeals court has quashed a ruling that the WHS prosecution of a major company was invalid because of the process used to delegate the applicable regulatory powers. Meanwhile, a play centre has been charged with multiple safety breaches after a child fell seven metres.OHS Alert2024-03-22T15:52:00+10:00WHS Bill passes with insurance ban, HSR protections and plan to expand manslaughter provisions
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82080
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.OHS Alert2024-03-22T13:32:00+10:00WHS notice targets safety reports, but stayed by IRC
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82079
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.OHS Alert2024-03-21T15:58:00+10:00Target workload perceptions to boost wellbeing
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82077
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.OHS Alert2024-03-21T12:32:00+10:00ISO releases guide to safety reporting and metrics
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82076
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.OHS Alert2024-03-20T15:56:00+10:00Manslaughter commencement confirmed, blitz announced
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82075
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.OHS Alert2024-03-20T14:29:00+10:00High Court to clarify dismissal-related safety duties, rights
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82073
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.OHS Alert2024-03-19T14:50:00+10:00Violence escalates after pleas for more staff ignored
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82072
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.OHS Alert2024-03-19T13:15:00+10:00Employers falling short on duties to pregnant workers
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82071
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".OHS Alert2024-03-19T12:17:00+10:00Soapy-floor claim proceeds despite erased CCTV footage
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82069
A worker who allegedly slipped on a soapy floor with no "wet floor signs" has been permitted to a sue a major employer for damages, with a court finding the employer's bid to block her case wasn't helped by a policy of overwriting CCTV footage every two weeks.OHS Alert2024-03-18T14:16:00+10:00Q&A: Wellbeing program reduces stress and anxiety, and targets sedentary risks
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82068
A major law firm is targeting body, mind, culture and place through a holistic wellbeing program with strategies ranging from "desk stretch cards" to vicarious trauma training, and its employees are reaping the rewards with reductions in depression, stress and anxiety.OHS Alert2024-03-18T11:53:00+10:00"Ethically reprehensible" and repeatedly aggressive manager loses adverse action and WHS claims
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82067
A "critical and insensitive" manager who routinely swore at his subordinates in an attempt to motivate them to meet purported "German demands" has lost his adverse action case, with a court finding his behaviour warranted instant dismissal and he wasn't the victim of WHS breaches.OHS Alert2024-03-15T15:51:00+10:00Fines doubled to $10m; Manslaughter changes flagged; more
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82066
* Safety fines doubled to $10m under NSW asbestos Bill;
* Industrial manslaughter promised ahead of Tas election;
* Manslaughter jailings needed, says union after Vic fatality; and
* Ten WHS Codes amended for GHS 7 in SA.OHS Alert2024-03-15T13:43:00+10:00Food strategy combats brain fog in hazardous industry
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82065
Eating badly can be as bad for workers' alertness and safety outcomes as sleep deprivation, according to a leading dietitian who urges employers to "make the healthy choice the easy choice" in workplaces.OHS Alert2024-03-15T11:32:00+10:00Staff ratios examined in latest safety case involving kids
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82064
Another employer has been fined for workplace health and safety breaches affecting children, with its failures including not maintaining a safe supervision ratio of employees to customers.OHS Alert2024-03-14T15:55:00+10:00Tick-and-flick anti-harassment exercises damaging workplace health and safety efforts
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82062
Disingenuous attempts by companies to curb s-xual harassment in response to increased attention on the matter are damaging the chances for change, according to the latest instalment of a landmark Australian study.OHS Alert2024-03-14T12:55:00+10:00Broderick to review compliance with positive safety duty
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82061
Former Federal S-x Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has been tasked with shifting her focus to a new sector and ensuring employers are complying with their positive duties to prevent harassment and protect the safety of staff.OHS Alert2024-03-13T15:45:00+10:00Judge reveals reasoning in first work manslaughter case
https://www.ohsalert.com.au/news/82060
The full written reasons for Victoria's first workplace manslaughter conviction have outlined four key differences between the case and Australia's first industrial manslaughter prosecution in 2020. They also show the defendant's director should not have moved a forklift "another inch" until he was fully aware of the location of a pedestrian worker.OHS Alert2024-03-13T14:09:00+10:00