Browsing: Consultation | Page 5

Employers have been warned, by both Safe Work Australia and unions, that they still have a WHS duty to protect workers from COVID-19 despite easing public health directions and orders.

Workers who are children face unique health and safety challenges at work, but their employers' policies and processes are often not age-appropriate and block them from reporting issues or engaging with safety, the director of a children's organisation says.

• New safety consultation and labour-hire laws commence in Vic;
  
• Consolidated electricity safety laws introduced in Tas; and
  
• Workers' comp changes proposed by Tas.

A number of employers' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic created suspicion among workers and damaged the "psychological contract", highlighting the need for "relational repair" and workplace safety improvements, according to research conducted with a safety regulator.

An employer's obligation to consult with workers on COVID-19 vaccine mandates does not extend to implementing measures required by public health orders, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

• Employer fined $275k over poor clean-up process and fatality; and
  
• High Court refuses to hear worker's chemical sensitivity case.

A five-member Fair Work Commission bench has detailed activities that do and do not constitute consultation with the meaning of the model WHS laws, in finding BHP failed to properly consult its workers before imposing a COVID-19 vaccination mandate at one of its NSW sites.

Co-designing tasks and processes with employees is key to removing complexity from their jobs, reducing their stress and helping them stay mentally healthy in the lead up to Christmas and other peak periods, a logistics safety webinar has heard.

Psychosocial risk management is not only crucial to preventing workplace musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) but ensuring injuries don't become chronic and block rehabilitation, a major safety agency has found.

PCBUs that don't take steps to identify the most effective ways to eliminate or minimise the risk of workplace s-xual harassment - which can include adjusting office layouts - are "not meeting their legal obligations under WHS laws", the CEO of Safe Work Australia has stressed.