Browsing: Contractors | Page 39

A judge has rejected a PCBU's claim, on appeal, that it had been entitled to rely on a principal contractor to complete a safety critical task. But she quashed its WHS conviction, after finding the prosecutor misstated the date of the breach.

A Fair Work Commission full bench has upheld the dismissal of an elected health and safety rep, whose mistreatment of contractors preceded a suicide attempt. Meanwhile, a Qantas worker has reiterated his claim that he inadvertently consumed more than a dozen standard alcoholic drinks on the night before a shift.

• Three hundred thousand reasons to comply with a WHS notice;
  
• Regulator issues fatality alert, investigates confined space death; and
  
• PC's mental health probe to examine workplaces.

A WHS regulator's investigative and prosecutorial roles should be transferred to police and the DPP, given its "abysmal" investigation into a workplace fatality, a union has told a coronial inquest into the death.

• Employer fined $380k over contractor's fatal fall;
  
• Safety alerts and guidance released in Vic and WA; and
  
• WorkCover Qld joins anti-phoenix taskforce.

• Inquiry into OHS avoidance and on-demand work launched in Vic;
  
• Dust safety amendments and start date clarified in Qld;
  
• NSW steps up fatality-reduction targets, releases new WHS plan; and
  
• SWA calls for "People's Choice" funding applications.

Employers owe a duty of care to workers known to engage in "skylarking", a court has reiterated in finding a PCBU guilty of WHS offences relating to the death of a worker who wasn't wearing the necessary PPE.

A Senate inquiry has called on the Australian Government to ensure legislated workplace health and safety rights for workers who are not classified as employees or perform non-standard work, with the proliferation of the gig economy.

BHP is establishing a set of universal minimum safety requirements for engaging and managing contractors across its global operations and also plans to improve how it investigates safety incidents and shares lessons learned, after the death of two workers during the 2018 financial year, the global resources company says in its latest sustainability report.

A PCBU had a WHS duty to instruct a second, larger company to alter its workplace layout before sending its workers there, a judge has found in convicting the PCBU.