Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (TAS) | Page 4

• Workplace forced by govt to close for COVID-19 breaches; and
  
• New WHS Minister and safety chief announced in ACT and Tas.

This article examines all the must-know workplace safety, workers' compensation and COVID-19 developments from July, August and September 2020, with highlights including a new WHS Code for the pandemic, the Dreamworld judgment, a record double-fatality fine and gross negligence cases.

• Employers targeted in new COVID-19 testing regime in Vic; and
  
• National Safe Work Month kicks off tomorrow.

• COVID face coverings can create new work risks, regulator warns;
  
• "Second line of defence" prescribed for Qld mines;
  
• Employers reminded of new quad bike safety standards; and
  
• New online system helps WHS notifications in Tas.

In this article, OHS Alert reviews all the need-to-know workplace safety and compensation developments from the second quarter of 2020, including Australia's first industrial manslaughter conviction, recklessness cases, work-related pandemic restrictions and wholesale legislative changes.

• COVID-19 work recovery plans due now;
  
• Workplace COVID-19 controls mandated in Tas;
  
• COVID-19 lift policy and 15-minute rule announced in NT;
  
• Coronavirus construction checklist launched in Vic; and
  
• SA's workplace silica threshold halving in two weeks.

In a long-running WHS case, involving a forklift fatality and a seemingly incongruous category 3 charge, a superior court has found a magistrate should have recused himself from the matter to avoid ruling on particulars of the charge that he himself drafted.

• Regulator releases more details on WHS recklessness case;
  
• Revised WHS Code for first aid adopted by Tas; and
  
• NSW freezes workers' comp premiums for COVID-19 pandemic.

• Another crane driver sentenced for reckless WHS breach; and
  
• White card safety warning issued in WA.

Employers have been urged to resist intensifying work demands or ramping up surveillance of workers working at home because of COVID-19, to avoid worsening the mental health challenges already posed by the pandemic. Meanwhile, Tasmania has released a pandemic planning guide for workplaces.