> NSW launches COVID-19 work guidance, addresses misconceptions; > PCBUs warned after worker killed by damaged gate; > Revamped WHS regulator to focus on climate change and violence; and > ACTU applauds Vic's broader workplace death definition.
An employer has committed to trialling vehicle safety sensor systems and rolling out the collision avoidance technology across its entire fleet, after being accused of WHS breaches relating to the death of a worker in a runaway vehicle incident.
Engaging in "hard" tactics like legitimising requests by calling on safety policies, rules and regulatory sanctions is the wrong way to go about influencing senior managers, according to an OHS integration expert. She urges health and safety professionals to opt for more rational and value-based appeals.
> COVID-19 and silica updates from NSW, Vic, WA and SWA; > Manslaughter laws come with broader definition of workplace death; and > Inventory overhauled for new risk-based chemical safety system.
A PCBU and the man it relied on to prevent workers accessing unprotected edges have been convicted and fined a total of $165,000, plus $50,000 in costs, after a worker was severely injured in a four-metre fall.
Employers will be forced to make quickfire decisions on right-of-entry disputes, under recent amendments to the Queensland WHS Act, according to workplace health and safety lawyers.
The velocity of the COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated that current risk management approaches are too slow and rigid to deal with major disruptive events, according to a safety and risk management expert.
An employer's travel survey of employees was a lawful and reasonable part of its efforts to control the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and comply with its WHS duties, a commission has ruled in upholding the dismissal of a worker who refused to complete the survey.
An employer unlawfully discriminated against an older worker in refusing to engage him for work in a hot environment, with its manager likening the proposed labour-hire arrangement to sending "your dad or granddad" into high-risk conditions, a court has found.
> HSE adviser allegedly unlawfully snubbed by official; > New WHS Code of Practice commences in NSW; > Two more jurisdictions halve workplace silica threshold; and > Draft national safety guidelines for asbestos-cement pipes released.
