Browsing: Consultation | Page 4

The NSW Government has declined to act on a recommendation from a parliamentary dust inquiry to proactively increase the number of elected health and safety representatives in a hazardous industry, and highlighted the technical difficulties of tightening workplace exposure thresholds.

• Inquiry into companies' responses to major explosion announced;
  
• Lung diseases and asbestos targeted by Qld grants and workplace audits; and
  
• Clarified WHS Code takes effect in Qld.

Under WHS laws, no risk assessment was necessary and workers were not required to be consulted prior to the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, a commission has found in a decision directly affecting 24 sacked workers.

A worker's absolute refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 constituted wilful misconduct and clear grounds for dismissal without notice, a commission has ruled, after hearing his employer's vaccine policy was developed in consultation with key WHS stakeholders.

Companies and officers accused of WHS breaches could bear the onus of proving they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent an incident occurring, while the offence of industrial manslaughter will be added to the national model WHS Act, with Labor taking power in the Federal election on the weekend.

A major logistics employer should have been more transparent with a group of shift managers who expressed safety concerns when they were asked to step into stevedoring roles during an industrial dispute, a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding the reinstatement of all six managers.

A PCBU that declined to act on the safety advice of an electrician has been convicted and fined for three serious WHS offences, including failing to consult and coordinate activities with the company tasked with installing and commissioning its imported plant.

• Work-related COVID restrictions softened in another state; and
  
• How to prevent "technostress" and other hybrid work hazards.

A worker whose unfair dismissal case hinged on a letter from the Prime Minister, stating vaccines are not compulsory in Australia, and who claimed her employer failed to consult her before requiring her to be vaccinated against COVID-19, was not unfairly sacked, a commission has found.

PCBUs working within contractual chains can owe WHS duties to workers they don't have direct contractual arrangements with, while individuals can have simultaneous duties as PCBUs and workers, according to new Safe Work Australia guidance.