Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (VIC) | Page 9

Timely support, connectedness and meaningful suitable duties for injured workers have been driving an award-winning employer's progress since it moved its return-to-work processes in-house, its people boss has revealed.

An employer breached it legislative safety duties, in the lead up to the death of a manager, by failing to instruct a supplier to pack containers in a manner that allowed them to be emptied safely, a court has ruled. Meanwhile, Australian companies have been urged to take a more ethical approach to their supply chains, on the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster.

• Fatality charge coincides with industrial gate warning;
  
• Long-term WHS exemption expiring in NSW; and
  
• Comcare releases Q&A on new psychosocial regulations.

• Company officer charged with bullying and causing breaches;
  
• First anti-harassment audit completed in mining campaign; and
  
• Injury fraudster sentenced after probe into ambulance calls.

Surveillance footage, videos and photos of an injured worker washing his car, playing the guitar and performing other activities he claims he struggled to do, did not prove he had the capacity to return to work, a court has ruled.

The workplace safety fine imposed on a company in relation to a triple road fatality has been increased by nearly 70 per cent, with an appeals court majority finding its "failure to adopt a more rigorous testing regime" for vehicle components involved a "significant departure" from its duty to non-workers.

A company accused of failing to ensure a hazardous task was performed at a safer time of the day, or under floodlights, has been fined $250,000 over the death of a jockey, in a case highlighting the breadth of workplace health and safety laws.

A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount penalty of $300,000, after its "unexplained disregard" for guarding requirements led to the amputation of five of a teenage worker's fingers. Meanwhile, a repeat offender's latest safety fines have been increased significantly, after a regulator appealed.

A company director and a worker in his 20s have been charged with breaching workplace health and safety laws by allegedly s-xually harassing seven workers aged as young as 14.

Employers have been reminded that cars used by workers are workplaces and they have a duty to control the risks posed by in-vehicle distractions and other hazards. They have also been reminded of two high-level safety fines, of nearly $500,000 each, imposed on organisations that failed to comply with their road-related duties.