Australia's WHS framework is robust and can help duty holders grapple with the ever-changing impact of COVID-19 on health and safety, but mitigating pandemic hazards is not a one-size-fits-all approach, according to department heads from two Federal safety agencies.
An employer has introduced a new injury management database for identifying client sites that pose extra risks to workers, and introduced site-specific pre-employment medicals, among $782,000 worth of rectifications made after a serious incident.
A new WHS Code of Practice has provided PCBUs with clear guidance on their duties to consult with workers, health and safety representatives and other businesses in a COVID-19 context. Meanwhile, Comcare has produced a "micro-learn" video on using face masks at work in the pandemic.
With the release of the national "roadmap" out of coronavirus restrictions, a senior WHS lawyer has urged employers to consult with workers and HSRs, identify COVID-19 risk factors unique to their business, and implement "pandemic plans" for positive diagnoses and transitioning workers back to remote work if the situation deteriorates.
A regulator has rejected a second WHS undertaking application in a matter of months, this time from a PCBU that has received 44 prohibition and improvement notices since late 2015, and whose proposed undertaking focuses on implementing administrative over higher order control measures.
Two company officers and their companies have been convicted and fined in separate cases, after the officers failed to provide the PCBUs with the resources to regularly inspect and maintain dangerous equipment or align work practices with weather conditions.
Employers planning to introduce new safety or health-monitoring procedures are required to consult with health and safety representatives and workers on the issue of gendered violence, and must not wait for formal reports of gendered violence incidents before addressing the matter, new guidelines warn.
A lack of consultation and the absence of pressing safety needs have blocked a national transport company's decision to change its blood alcohol limit for certain drivers from the same as general law to zero.
Employers have a legal duty to identify and manage reasonably foreseeable workplace psychological hazards, and protect workers from unsafely high work demands and bullying, a SafeWork NSW director told a forum on mental health in the legal industry today.
