Strategies aimed at improving ergonomics and targeting stressful work demands that give workers no time to think or have lunch, can reduce the rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, European researchers say.
Business and union groups have joined forces to call for the urgent introduction of a paid pandemic leave scheme, saying the outbreaks of COVID-19 in Victoria - which entered a "state of disaster" last night - show workers are attending work while infectious and accelerating community transmission.
A "significant deterioration" in the COVID-19 situation in Victoria and NSW, and the elevated risk of workplace exposure to the virus, have driven a Fair Work Commission full bench's decision to include paid pandemic leave in three modern awards. Meanwhile, a union and an on-demand company have reached an agreement on pandemic protections for workers.
A project examining cases of work-related post-traumatic stress disorder, in supposedly low-risk occupations, has warned that women often experience hostile behaviour and even "mobbing" when they return to work from maternity or sick leave.
Renewed calls for a Federal paid pandemic leave scheme have followed Victoria's revelation that nine in 10 Victorians with COVID-19 continued going to work or the shops after they first experienced symptoms. Meanwhile, heavy vehicle industry workers have been urged to lead by example on coronavirus control measures.
A commission has upheld the dismissal of a psychologically injured whistleblower, after finding the return-to-work "adjustments" required by her doctor were actually "outcomes", and not warranted.
Legal researchers have called for employers to use workplace investigations to eliminate s-xual harassment risks instead of silencing complainants, and warned that COVID-19 is making it harder to detect poor behaviour. Meanwhile, studies have identified links between unsupportive leaders and poor health from bullying and harassment.
Preventing a resurgence of COVID-19 transmissions, as economic activity picks up, hinges on the introduction of a "pandemic regulation" requiring employers to implement higher order WHS controls for the risks posed by the pandemic, an inquiry has heard.
Australia's COVID-19 transmission rate is currently low, but having an employee with viral symptoms attend work still poses a significant psychological risk to other workers, according to a leading occupational physician and past president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine.
A worker whose psychological injury became incapacitating after her employer refused to reclassify her sick leave has been given another chance to seek compensation, in a full Federal Court case examining the application of administrative action exclusions.
