Browsing: Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Page 48

Safe Work Australia has outlined a range of actions employers should take to satisfy their WHS duties pertaining to coronavirus, while Comcare has detailed circumstances in which COVID-19 could be linked to employment under workers' comp laws, and the Attorney-General has flagged a "range of potential responses" to COVID-19 issues affecting work.

Qantas has been issued a WHS improvement notice involving a system of work that "may" expose workers and others to a risk of illnesses like coronavirus. Meanwhile, mining giant Fortescue Metals has revealed its strategies for protecting workers from the potentially deadly flu-like disease.

The World Health Organisation has outlined low-cost measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus within workplaces or to travelling employees, while the Australian Government has initiated its coronavirus emergency response plan, which includes provisions for healthcare and border workers.

The upcoming commencement of workplace manslaughter legislation coincides with a period of unprecedented regulatory activity and record-high inspection numbers, Victorian duty holders have been warned. Meanwhile, an employer has been charged with illegally stockpiling chemicals, and safety regulators have issued coronavirus and fatality alerts.

A regulator has alerted workers to their WHS duties pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak, while a local council has committed some $2 million to safety improvements and enforceable undertakings after being accused of failing to prepare asbestos registers and other WHS breaches.

Employers should consider updating their fitness for work and leave policies, adding provisions for "quarantining" workers, and reviewing workplace hygiene protocols, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Ashurst partner Trent Sebbens says in this Q&A with OHS Alert.