An employer breached safety laws in failing to ensure a plan to install edge protection around a newly created void was completed before workers were permitted to enter the area, a court has found in fining the company over a fall.
A litany of failures in the way a business approached a high-risk job led to the death of a trainee, a judge has ruled in convicting and fining an individual with the duties of a PCBU $60,000.
A PCBU that allowed a subcontractor to apply a system of work where height workers were forced to unhook their harnesses, to move materials, has been convicted of WHS contraventions.
A WHS regulator has called for members of the public to report any substandard safety practices they witness, and warned that the absence of suitable workplace amenities continues to be a major problem in one industry.
A PCBU that was initially charged with the industrial manslaughter of a worker, whose role required him to perform manual tasks within touching distance of an unguarded conveyor, has been fined $250,000 under an alternative charge.
PCBUs have been reminded of their duty to ensure the safety of all types of workers who might interact with equipment, after a business was fined heavily over an employee's serious thumb injury. Employers have also been urged to tackle the increasing risk of mould exposure.
WHS laws could be amended, and prosecutory functions expanded, with a former Federal Court judge being appointed to review the adequacy of a WHS investigation into the murder of a nurse.
Companies and officers accused of WHS breaches could bear the onus of proving they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent an incident occurring, while the offence of industrial manslaughter will be added to the national model WHS Act, with Labor taking power in the Federal election on the weekend.
An inquest into a man's death from a seizure has provided a stark reminder of the potentially devastating long-term consequences of poor workplace processes, including one practice that "should never occur in a controlled work environment".
A company has been fined $375,000 and ordered to publish full-page ads detailing its offence in consecutive editions of key building industry magazines, after one of its contract truck drivers died after falling from his truck bed during unloading.