Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (NSW) | Page 6

SafeWork NSW has outlined a range of workplace factors that increase the risk of s-xual harassment, and explained what businesses can do to prevent it, in its inaugural four-year Respect at Work Strategy.

A PCBU has been fined $540,000 over a worker's death, after unsuccessfully seeking to reduce its penalty by arguing its electrical safety breaches did not cause the electrocution.

Significant amendments were made to workplace health and safety laws in every Australian jurisdiction in the third quarter of 2023, including many increasing penalties and making it easier to prosecute duty holders. This major report - the only one of its kind in the country - examines all the need-to-know legislative changes, workers' compensation developments and court decisions from July, August and September.

Two major pieces of legislation have passed the NSW and Western Australian Parliaments: a WHS Bill nearly tripling fines and doubling jail terms for category-1 breaches, and a complete workers' compensation rewrite that has been a decade in the making.

• Platform fined for 1,000 training breaches as WHS Bill progresses; and
  
• PCBU fined $440k over skier's death, safety report ignored.

A PCBU has successfully fought off allegations that it used false or misleading information to obtain an authorisation for a high-risk job and to disguise who was really performing the work.

With National Safe Work Month starting this week, employers are being urged to host SafeTea chats, focus on issues like mental health and workloads, and provide safer workplaces for women. Employers have also been warned to properly maintain their defibrillators.

The NSW Government has introduced WHS amendments tripling the maximum penalties for category-1 breaches, clarifying that officers can be prosecuted for recklessness, introducing "prohibited asbestos notices" with hefty non-compliance fines, and giving police certain enforcement powers under WHS laws.

A large employer has been found guilty of WHS offences, after a court rejected its claims that a worker was struck by falling 700kg objects because she deliberately breached a work practice passed on through a buddy system.

• Company charged with endangering customers, after fatality;
  
• Inspectors issue hundreds of WHS notices in three-day blitz; and
  
• WHS resources for new audiometric duties in NSW released.