Browsing: Contractors | Page 12

Employers have been urged to ensure their safety procedures are followed around the clock, after two related companies were fined over the death of a shift worker inside a machine. Another company has been fined for safety breaches after two vehicles disappeared down a 13-metre sink hole.

Trade unions have been reminded of their traditional role of seeking to enhance WHS laws, perceived as insufficient, through political and parliamentary processes, with a judge handing record workplace coercion fines to a union and three officials.

A PCBU has been fined $262,500 over the death of a truck driver struck by a 580kg pack of timber batons, which fell from a trailer as it was being loaded.

An engineering company and its director have been fined a total of $460,000 after the death of a worker crushed by a one-tonne pipe, due to safety failings known to the director.

Legislation banning workers' compensation "claim farming" has passed Parliament, while a Bill increasing workplace protections for s-xual harassment victims and independent vehicle drivers has been introduced, and a mental health levy has been announced for large employers, across a busy few days in Queensland.

• Gig death covered by workers' comp Act, family wins $827k; and
  
• Special WHS inquiry triggered by 12th agricultural fatality.

One of three PCBUs charged over an incident where a crane came into contact with overhead powerlines, and two workers suffered serious electric shocks, has been convicted and fined $150,000, plus $102,000 in prosecution costs.

A PCBU has been fined heavily twice over two incidents that occurred a year apart at the same site, with a judge stating, "It's hard to imagine a more cavalier attitude to the obligations required under the WHS Act."

Employers have been reminded of the importance of safety protocols for confined spaces and heights, after two PCBUs were fined a combined $600,000 over a worker's six-metre fall through an improperly marked void.

Two PCBUs, including a repeat offender, which failed to perform adequate safety checks of a site's penetrations, have been convicted of WHS contraventions after a subcontracted worker sustained serious injuries in a 4.5-metre fall.