Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (ACT) | Page 12

In this article, OHS Alert reviews all the major WHS and workers' comp developments from the final quarter of 2018, including the release of ISO 45001 as an Australian Standard, record-breaking safety fines and enforceable undertakings, and legislative changes.

A company director has successfully argued his safety breaches didn't warrant the near-record fine imposed on him, with an appeals court finding he had been negligent rather than reckless. Meanwhile, a number of employers have been charged and entered undertakings after a child was killed and a young trainee fell six metres.

In sentencing a PCBU for multiple breaches of WHS regulations, a judge has suggested that prosecutors detail the costs saved by companies by ignoring their duties, so that courts can set fines that adequately deter such offending.

Australia has adopted a range of international Standards on forklift safety, while a NSW regulator has released a series of fact sheets on new plant design rules.

A WHS regulator is likely to target more industries, issue more statutory notices and push for more enforceable undertakings, after the ACT Government gave in principle support to all 27 recommendations of a compliance review.

A government employer has smashed WHS undertaking records with its $10 million-plus commitment to rectifications and enforceable safety initiatives, after poor controls led to a number of workers being injured in violent incidents.

• Three hundred thousand reasons to comply with a WHS notice;
  
• Regulator issues fatality alert, investigates confined space death; and
  
• PC's mental health probe to examine workplaces.

• Four improvement notices issued after alleged bullying death;
  
• Fatal and life-threatening falls prompt warning;
  
• New national guide on hazardous chemicals released; and
  
• Unsafe-cladding audit clears four major buildings, says SA Govt.

• Supermarket giant charged over itinerant's vehicle death;
  
• PCBU and director fined over five-finger amputation; and
  
• Cylinder-storage alert issued after explosion death.

• New workplace surveillance laws flagged;
  
• OHS-style environment laws and safety code progress; and
  
• Alerts, notices issued after death, escort breaches and other incidents.