Browsing: Asbestos | Page 4

• Have you assessed your workplace buildings for asbestos? A WHS regulator is checking, in support of national plan; and
  
• Employer fined after forklift load falls.

A company and one of its directors have been fined, and handed a hefty decontamination bill, for embarking on a clean-up exercise that could have exposed hundreds of people to asbestos fibres. Meanwhile, a regulator has issued a warning to PCBUs following a "horror month" of nail gun incidents.

In a case sending an important reminder to duty holders on the ongoing presence of asbestos-containing materials in many workplaces, two companies have been fined after engineering workers were potentially exposed to asbestos fibres. Meanwhile, an employer has been charged with failing to provide a safe system for unloading imported stones slabs, after a worker was killed.

Employers are not required by workplace health and safety laws to "hold the hand" of experienced workers, but must take steps to ensure they have the skills to spot risks and select safe work methods, a court has found in upholding a worker's damages claim.

• Beware medical certificate subscriptions;
  
• Workplace control measures for lung diseases must be reviewed: SWA; and
  
• Fit-testing breaches creating serious asbestos risks.

• Employer fined $102k over work basket detachment;
  
• "Top 10 hazardous chemicals" targeted by NSW guidance; and
  
• Regulators issue asbestos warnings, target illegal imports.

• New OHS penalty and sick leave regimes commencing in Vic; and
  
• Workplace exposure standards overhaul: feedback period closing.

• FIFO worker handed COVID fine for leaving room;
  
• Fatality fine and blitz send height warning to employers; and
  
• Asbestos-levy cut to save businesses $1.2m in Tas.

• PCBUs told to eliminate lung risks, on SWA campaign launch; and
  
• New safety charges follow $150k penalty, as fatality alerts issued.

Employers covered by the Commonwealth WHS Act will receive training on preventing workplace s-xual harassment, under one of a string of safety-related measures included in the Federal Government's 2021-22 budget, delivered last night.