A major employer charged with failing to provide fit-for-purpose equipment and contributing to a death has been convicted and fined $450,000, while another PCBU has been fined $30,000 for failing to report two rollover incidents.
A company director has successfully argued his safety breaches didn't warrant the near-record fine imposed on him, with an appeals court finding he had been negligent rather than reckless. Meanwhile, a number of employers have been charged and entered undertakings after a child was killed and a young trainee fell six metres.
In sentencing a PCBU for multiple breaches of WHS regulations, a judge has suggested that prosecutors detail the costs saved by companies by ignoring their duties, so that courts can set fines that adequately deter such offending.
Employment relationships should always be characterised, by judges, in a way that avoids or minimises the risk of WHS or workers' comp violations, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in a landmark gig economy case involving a Foodora rider.
A major international company has secured AS/NZS 4801 certification across its Australian operations, under a process involving a third-party contractor management provider and ensuring alignment with the new global Standard for OHS management systems, ISO 45001.
A union official who encouraged workers to defy a major employer's sun-protection policy was attempting to fulfil the wishes of workers and didn't engage in unlawful industrial action, a full Federal Court has found in setting aside high-range penalties.
A confined-space worker who wasn't provided with flame-resistant PPE or adequate training on how to deal with a fire has been awarded more than $700,000 in damages.
A major employer that developed a new safety strategy in collaboration with contractors has reduced its total recordable injury frequency rate by 75 per cent, and won a national safety leadership award.
A coroner has warned that industrial manslaughter laws will increase "defensive litigious strategies", but recommended a review that could shift the focus of WHS management from risk assessment to mandatory rules.
An employer has been ordered to pay an injured contractor workers' compensation, after an appeals court found the man surrendered his independence through working exclusively with the employer.
