Victoria Police can start overcoming its notorious s-xist organisational culture, which includes cases of rape, by publicly acknowledging harm to employees and establishing a "redress scheme", according to an independent review of the organisation.
Five weeks ago, Safe Work Australia reported the lowest annual traumatic injury fatality rate on record. Since then, Victoria has reported its worst month for workplace fatalities in more than a decade, the Queensland mining sector has reported its highest fatality rate since 1997, and the 2015 national work-related death toll has surged.
Five Victorian employers have been fined for exclusion zone breaches and other safety failures, while a man has been convicted of workers' comp fraud. In Queensland, a company has been fined just $15,000 for a guarding breach, despite being prosecuted for similar offences twice before.
The Essendon Football Club has pleaded guilty to OHS charges relating to the 2011-12 supplements scandal, while the Supreme Court has granted a former player access to AFL documents to help him decide whether to sue the club and the AFL for exposing him to health and safety risks.
A coroner has recommended that a major employer regularly review its vehicle defect-reporting procedures, after finding its failure to fix a fault, which a worker had complained about, contributed to that man's death.
In this article, OHS Alert outlines recent safety and workers' comp developments from NSW, Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Commonwealth jurisdiction.
Victoria has been given little time to enjoy its status as the "nation's safest state" - as indicated in a new Safe Work Australia report - with five workers being killed in a "horrifying" nine-day period.
