A coronial inquiry into the death of a recently immigrated worker has highlighted the very real dangers faced by inexperienced workers and posed by power tools, particularly tools with unsafe modifications or faults.
A company director who failed to ensure his organisation provided fall prevention measures to height workers has become the third entity to be fined over a five-metre fall, while a regulator has expressed frustration after yet another employer was fined for forklift-related breaches.
WorkSafe Victoria has won a preliminary legal skirmish in a case that will consider the powers of its inspectors to control sites and issue clean-up orders based on concerns over public or workplace health following dangerous chemical spillages.
A "lack of supervisory control" and the repeated failure to detect and report faults "represented an opportunity lost" to prevent a worker's death from being crushed on a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP), a coronial inquiry has found.