In this article, OHS Alert examines all the major workplace safety and workers' comp developments from the final quarter of 2015, including proposed WHS changes and the jailing of a company owner for the manslaughter of an employee.

Categorised by jurisdiction, each brief summary includes a link to the original OHS Alert article (which could be contained within a set of news briefs), and we've also compiled a list of some of our most popular articles from October to December.

You can access all of our quarterly updates (going back to 2004) directly from our WHS Links page at any time.

• Commonwealth/National
• Australian Capital Territory
• New South Wales
• Northern Territory
• Queensland
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Victoria
• Western Australia
• Popular articles

Commonwealth/National

Safe Work Australia revealed that the model WHS laws were being amended to clarify the reach of PINs, increase penalties for entry breaches and reduce "unnecessary regulatory burden". It also replaced the draft Code of Practice for cranes with 10 guides and information sheets, made 430 changes to its hazardous substances lists, and released a discussion paper on possible changes to chemical exposure standards.

The NTC announced plans to better align the Heavy Vehicle National Law with WHS laws, and released a new version of the dangerous goods Code, while the Safe Rates Tribunal issued a remuneration order to supermarket chains and other employers, and the NHVR announced that electronic work diaries could be available by early 2017.

FWBC announced that it was giving construction companies until February 2016 to comply with new drug and alcohol testing rules. Meanwhile, the international OECD recommended that Australia introduce mandatory return-to-work plans for workers who take sick leave for a mental illness.

The Government's Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 passed Parliament without a clause that would have prevented incapacitated employees accruing leave while receiving workers' compensation. It subsequently introduced a "Remaining 2014 Measures" Bill aimed, in part, at removing such accrual rights.

The Federal Court confirmed that employers were entitled to direct employees to attend a company-nominated doctor before returning to work after injury, while a union was denied special leave to appeal to the High Court against a decision in favour of an employer that changed a worker's roster after he took sick leave.

A full Federal Court found a FIFO worker who was assaulted at a mining pub was entitled to compensation because he was injured in a work interval. Meanwhile, a worker who had a stroke while showering in a hotel room was awarded compensation, after a tribunal found the High Court's motel sex decision showed the link between an interval activity and an injury could be temporal rather than causal.

Among numerous Fair Work Commission decisions in the fourth quarter of 2015:

• a deputy president imposed eight stop-bullying orders on an employer in a long-running dispute involving insulting Facebook posts and an employee "Code of Silence";
• a commissioner found a worker's 20-minute abusive tirade against a colleague constituted "repeated and unreasonable behaviour" under anti-bullying laws, while another commissioner declined to impose stop-bullying orders on an employer that took steps to improve its culture after a bullying complaint;
• a commissioner found an employer was entitled to sack an obese worker for being unable to perform his role safely, despite the man providing medical certificates stating he was fit for work;
• another commissioner found an employer unfairly sacked a worker based on a rushed, inconclusive expert's report on a safety incident involving the worker;
• a commissioner expressed astonishment at a "workplace relations specialist's" decision to sack an injured worker without notice immediately after a meeting on her return-to-work program; and
• a commissioner upheld a large workplace's tobacco smoking ban, after finding a union's valid opposition to the ban was "ameliorated" by the measures the employer put in place to help workers quit or reduce smoking.

A company that produced high-pressure spray guns became the first manufacturer to be convicted and fined as an upstream duty holder under national offshore safety laws, after a petroleum diver was seriously injured while using one of its guns.

SWA reported a record-low work-related traumatic injury fatality rate for 2014, but the 2015 work-related death toll subsequently soared, and two jurisdictions reported their highest fatality rates in more than a decade.

SWA also released its fourth and final report on the role of accounting in WHS governance, which found that employers needed to determine how all managerial decisions affected safety, before applying that knowledge to all business decisions.

Australian Capital Territory

The Territory Government introduced a Bill requiring large employers and self-insurers to appoint a trained return-to-work coordinator, and allowing WorkSafe inspectors to enter a workplace for workers' comp purposes without obtaining employer consent.

New laws requiring employers to notify their workers' comp insurer of employee numbers and wages annually, instead of every six months, commenced in October, while a Bill facilitating the safe demolition and resale of properties containing "Mr Fluffy" loose-fill asbestos insulation passed Parliament.

An employer was fined $140,000 for WHS breaches after a young worker – one of six unsupervised apprentices – fell from a roof when his ladder slipped. Meanwhile, a worker who injured her back when she fell off a ladder was awarded $250,000 in damages, after a court found her employer breached scaffolding regulations in failing to require someone to hold the ladder.

The Court of Appeal quashed an injured subcontractor's $823,000 damages award, after finding his employer had been entitled to rely on him to perform a lifting task safely.

A workers' comp fraudster was jailed for at least three months, with the Supreme Court stressing that custodial sentences needed to be imposed in such cases because offences were "easy to commit but difficult to detect".

New South Wales

NSW completed the harmonisation of WHS laws for the resources sector, with a passed Bill extending the laws to the onshore petroleum sector. It also adopted national model drug-testing regulations for rail safety workers.

Among a series of workers' compensation developments in the final quarter of 2015:

• the State Opposition introduced a Bill to overturn the consequences of a Court of Appeal decision blocking a permanently injured worker from seeking a second lump sum payment, even though he received his first lump sum two years before the one-claim limit was introduced. The Government subsequently introduced a similar Amendment Regulation (potentially benefiting about 6000 injured workers), which was made on 13 November;
• reforms increasing death benefits, payments for funeral expenses and permanent impairment lump sums commenced in October, while reforms extending time caps on medical expenses and improving benefits for "high needs" workers commenced in December;
• SIRA launched reviews into proposed return-to-work benefits for injured workers, legal costs relating to work capacity decisions, and self-insurance licensing arrangements; and
• the Government introduced an incentive regime to ensure medium-to-large employers with good safety and RTW records contributed no more than a third of the total premium pool.

In a rare case involving the heart attack provisions of the workers' comp Act, the WCC found an employee's work trip created a "significantly greater risk" of him dying, and awarded his widow $510,800.

A coronial inquest into a string of quad bike deaths found that while many quad fatalities involved "user error", these errors were often only apparent in hindsight, and didn't excuse manufacturers from applying the hierarchy of risk controls.

A Mine Safety investigation into two underground deaths found that managers neglected to consider international research that identified the risk that caused the fatal incident. Meanwhile, two employers that failed to amend a safe work procedure, after updating instructions on isolating plant, were fined nearly $400,000 after a worker died.

An employer that dangerously modified a wood splitting machine was fined $195,000 after a worker's hand was amputated, while: another employer was fined $150,000 after a beam fell from an inappropriate frame and landed on a worker's foot, resulting in partial amputation; a hotel owner was fined $150,000 after a worker fell through an unguarded trapdoor; and a company was fined $120,000 after a steel bar pierced an excavator operator's skull because the vehicle's safety screen was open.

A major employer accused of WHS breaches committed to spending more than $800,000 on developing an all-industry mobile app (for managing contractors) and other initiatives under an enforceable undertaking, while another employer was fined $67,000 after seven workers were hospitalised when two of them mixed incompatible chemicals, creating a toxic gas, while their supervisors were in a management meeting.

A worker with "creeping trauma" was awarded nearly $1 million in damages, after a court found his employer repeatedly failed to provide him with counselling after he witnessed "gruesome" events and admitted he was struggling with work.

Two injured workers who were stripped of their high damages awards (relating to separate vehicle incidents) in the Court of Appeal were denied special leave to appeal to the High Court against the decisions.

The winners of the SafeWork NSW Awards were announced in October.

Northern Territory

The Return to Work Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, which marked the final stage of the implementation of all recommendations of the 2014 review of the workers' comp scheme, commenced on 1 October. Meanwhile, Parliament passed a Bill allowing police to randomly test drivers' saliva for prohibited drugs from February 2016.

The High Court confirmed that hindsight could be used to determine whether a cause of action accrued before an injury was detected, in upholding a Northern Territory worker's $425,000 mesothelioma claim.

A coronial inquest into the death of a young tourist, who fell off a cliff, found a tour company took no steps to ensure its employee training on client safety was effective.

In an ongoing case involving allegations that an employer breached the entry provisions of the Territory's mirror WHS Act, the Federal Court rejected a union's bid to take photos of suspected safety contraventions at the employer's workplace.

Queensland

A WHS Bill restoring HSR and entry powers passed Parliament, but a clause imposing additional injury-notification requirements on employers was defeated, despite the IR Minister agreeing to simplify access to reporting systems.

A FIFO inquiry recommended limiting or abolishing "motelling" and establishing minimum accommodation standards that, for example, protected FIFO workers from noise and light. Meanwhile, the lives of the State Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2001 and Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Regulation 2001 were extended to August 2016.

Three cases of the incurable work-related disease black lung, thought to be wiped out in Australia decades ago, were reported in Queensland, prompting calls for mandatory regular chest x-rays of mine workers.

A coronial inquest found a worker died from carbon monoxide poisoning while using PPE attached to a diesel air compressor that his employer hadn't maintained.

Workplace Health and Safety released details of a prosecution (resulting in a $700,000 fine) of an employer whose "gross negligence and foolishness" caused two workers to fall to their deaths. Meanwhile, the District Court found that WHS charges against a transport company were invalid in failing the High Court Kirk test.

The Supreme Court halved an injured worker's damages award after finding he failed to isolate a pipe before sustaining foot burns and PTSD, while the Industrial Court rejected a worker's psych claim after finding she created the toxic work environment she complained of.

A worker who sustained a psychiatric injury, after discovering her boss had secretly photographed her breasts, successfully appealed a decision denying her compensation. Meanwhile, a worker whose manager told her she had "big boobs" when she complained of sexual harassment was also awarded workers' compensation for a psych injury.

The Court of Appeal confirmed that an employer's unfavourable health assessment of an injured worker wasn't legally valid because it referred to a broader role than the worker occupied.

The State Government flagged plans to: introduce certificates of capacity (or "fit notes") for injured workers; offer public sector employees 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave a year; introduce safer nurse-to-patient ratios; and streamline the application process for high-risk work licences.

A new IR Minister – Grace Grace – was appointed to oversee workplace safety, while the winners of the Safe Work and Return to Work Awards were announced.

South Australia

A company owner was jailed for at least 10 years for the manslaughter of an employee (killed in a dilapidated truck), in a case, according to a lawyer, that highlighted the global trend of holding individuals accountable for safety breaches. Another company owner was fined $45,000 after a young worker moved within two metres of overhead powerlines and suffered a life-threatening electric shock.

An employer defeated two OHS charges after the IRC found a worker was injured while "acting contrary to clear, repeated and well-known directives".

South Australia's new Employment Tribunal (SAET) handed down its first decision, finding an injured worker was entitled to attend a conciliation conference by telephone instead of travelling 800km to Adelaide.

The SAET found the new Return to Work Act didn't extinguish the lump sum entitlements a worker accrued under the old workers' comp Act, and found the new Act preserved another worker's right to apply for his weekly payments to be restored.

The wife of a worker who died of a heart attack was awarded compensation after the WCT found the man performed strenuous work duties shortly before his death. The WCT also found there was an "unbroken chain of causation" between a worker's compensable psychiatric injury and his death five years after quitting his job, but rejected his ex-wife's bid for death benefits.

An employer and one of its managers were fined more than $21,000 for sacking an injured worker without proper notice after WorkCover cleared them of their obligation to provide the worker with suitable employment.

A tribunal found that while an OHS manager "undermined the integrity" of his company's pre-employment process by overriding a doctor's favourable assessment of a prospective employee, he didn't breach equal opportunity laws.

The State Government announced that public sector employees would be entitled to 15 days of paid domestic violence leave a year from early 2016.

The State's unique SafeWork SA Advisory Council and other committees were replaced by a new single body – the Industrial Relations Consultative Committee.

Tasmania

The Coroner was forced to reiterate his warning that working under inadequately supported vehicles and other machines "can and will lead to death", after conducting his third investigation into such a fatality within a year.

In a case examining the meaning of "contract of service", the Supreme Court upheld a finding that a man wasn't a "worker" when he fractured his neck and spine while working for a friend.

The State Government introduced a safety strategy to ensure police officers didn't attend dangerous jobs alone, and announced plans to cap nurses' shifts at 12 hours to reduce fatigue and improve safety.

The 20th annual WorkSafe Tasmania Awards were presented.

Victoria

The Essendon Football Club was charged with two breaches of the State OHS Act relating to its notorious 2011-12 supplements program, where players were injected with a banned substance. It subsequently pleaded guilty, while the Supreme Court granted a former player access to AFL documents to help him decide whether to sue the club and the AFL for exposing him to health and safety risks.

The Court of Appeal upheld a fatality-related OHS charge against a major employer after finding the High Court's Kirk decision didn't require charge-sheets to specify "detailed" preventative actions.

Two major employers failed to convince the Court of Appeal that their fatality-related OHS charges (with maximum fines of more than $1 million) should be quashed because the relevant conduct was covered by road safety laws, with maximum fines of just $7300.

An employer that "chose to play Russian roulette" with workers' lives by ignoring safety recommendations was fined $600,000 after a worker suffered serious injuries. Another employer was fined $285,000 for failing to provide employees with vented cabinets for transporting gas cylinders, after a worker died in a van explosion.

A coroner found an employer's failure to fix a vehicle fault that a worker complained about contributed to that worker's subsequent death in a crash.

Victoria was given little time to enjoy being the "nation's safest state" (as indicated in a new Safe Work Australia report), with five workers killed in a "horrifying" nine-day period in November. November was later declared the worst month for workplace safety in the State in more than 10 years, with eight fatalities in total.

An employer was ordered to pay $1.3 million to a worker who developed PTSD and bipolar disorder after being sexually harassed daily for two years, while a tribunal found another employer directly discriminated against an injured worker when it sacked him for being unable to perform the inherent requirements of his role – without accurately determining what his role was.

An inquiry into discrimination, hostility towards women and reports of rape within Victoria Police identified a "sexist organisational climate, which puts unequal value on stereotypically male traits and gender roles, and has a high tolerance for sexualised and sexist workplace behaviour and interaction".

The State Ombudsman launched an investigation into whether WorkSafe insurance agents were unreasonably rejecting injured workers' claims, and whether they did this to obtain financial incentives offered by the regulator. Meanwhile, the Hazelwood Mine Fine Inquiry found the 2014 disaster probably caused an increase in deaths in Latrobe Valley communities.

A man who claimed workers' compensation while playing rugby for four years was one of a series of workers prosecuted for fraud and ordered to repay more than $130,000. Meanwhile, the winners of the WorkSafe Victoria Awards were announced at a Melbourne ceremony.

Western Australia

Employers were advised against starting training for the new WHS Act, suggesting planned changes to the "green" Bill would be significant and the Regulations could differ considerably from the national model WHS Regulations.

A DMP ministerial advisory panel revealed that Western Australia was likely to amend its dangerous goods regulations to ensure new WHS laws for the resources sector and the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals could commence on the same day (1 January 2017). Meanwhile, the State Government announced plans to strengthen safety Codes of Practice to improve FIFO workers' mental health.

Western Australia joined the national rail safety scheme on 2 November, while the State Law Reform Commission called for comments on whether to remove the "once-and-for-all" rule preventing asbestos victims from making more than one damages claim.

Among a series of safety prosecutions in the fourth quarter of 2015:

• an employer was fined $195,000, plus $100,000 in costs, after a labour-hire fitter was fatally struck by a projectile while working on a mine haul truck, while another employer was fined $90,000, plus $70,000 in costs, for failing to ensure the safety of two labour-hire workers, after one of them was killed by a falling object;
• an employer that was sued by an apprentice who suffered catastrophic burns at a work birthday party was fined $86,000 (with costs) over the same incident, while another employer was fined $45,000 after a worker was crushed to death while unpacking a shipping container;
• a mining company was fined $70,000 after a 1400kg part from a front-end loader slipped from a crane and killed a fitter in a workshop;
• a pearling company that failed to conduct emergency drills was fined $65,000 (with costs) after one of its divers drowned;
• an employer that failed to provide a safe procedure for unloading pipes from a truck was fined $90,000 after a worker was injured in a fall; and
• an employer and a director, whose safety policy for cutting hazardous drums relied too heavily on employee compliance, were fined a total of $52,500 after a worker was injured in an explosion.

In a long-running dispute involving the application of an American Medical Association guide, the Court of Appeal found a worker with occupational asthma had a 40 per cent degree of disability and could sue his employer for damages.

Consumer Protection took action (resulting in an enforceable undertaking) against a training provider over its dodgy high-risk-work courses, while WorkSafe reiterated its warning to employers to check the validity of high-risk licences, after discovering a man was using a fake licence covering 12 classes of high-risk work.

The Work Safety Awards were presented at a Perth ceremony.

And make sure you didn't miss...

Some of OHS Alert's most-viewed articles during the October-to-December quarter included:

• Jailing of SA director reflects global safety trend
• "McDonaldsing" safety system wins employer safety award
• Obese worker fairly sacked despite medical certificates
• Twenty-minute tirade classified as bullying
• Essendon charged with OHS breaches
• "Insensitive" employer handed $1m PTSD bill
• Worker compensated after "big boobs" response to harassment
• Which occupation has worst mental-disorder claims rate?
• WHS charge quashed by Kirk test
• "How can I unwind when I'm stressed at my desk?"
• Big employer's "poor safety attitude" results in $600k fine
• Secret breast photos caused work-related injury
• Worker disobeyed directions, OHS charges dismissed
• Safety professionals' salary expectations "softening"
• Q3 2015: What you should know from the last three months

Did we miss anything? Send your comments or feedback on this article to the editor, Brad Hamilton.

Remember, all of our quarterly updates, dating back to December 2004, are available on our WHS Links page.