In a WHS case involving the deaths of two teenage students from overseas, a court has imposed a penalty much higher than that recommended by the prosecution, stressing that unlike workers, children are particularly vulnerable to business-related hazards because they haven't been trained to recognise or mitigate risks.
An employer's efforts to address a worker's "unattainable" workload might have come too late, but the woman's psychological injury was barred from compensation, an appeals court has ruled, finding a previous decision applied the wrong reasonable management action test.
Employers could face increasing regulatory scrutiny where workplace fatalities or serious injuries occur, with a union pressuring government ministers to "get serious" about safety prosecutions. Meanwhile, a workplace supervisor has been fined over an induction incident.
This major OHS Alert report reviews all the need-to-know workplace health and safety and workers' comp developments from the past few months, including the passage of game-changing Respect@Work laws, numerous WHS amendments, COVID rulings, a state-first workplace manslaughter charge, and a record-smashing reckless conduct fine.
The prosecutions of a PCBU and an officer have sent a reminder to other duty holders that they must proactively guard against acts of carelessness or inattentiveness, including by specialist contractors.
A worker has overturned her conviction, and suspended jail sentence, for fraudulent injury compensation claims, with a court finding a prosecutor failed to disprove the possibility the woman's mother made the claims without her knowledge.
Employers have been reminded of two WHS prosecutions over a heat-stroke death, and of the need to conduct frequent weather-related risk assessments, with temperatures soaring in parts of Australia this week.
