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Determining liability for COVID-19 cases will involve a wide range of challenges, including where an employer has induced or encouraged workers to be somewhere where they are at risk of infection, or a worker has contracted the virus while working from home, according to one of Aon's WHS leaders.

Employers must implement processes for rewarding young workers who ask questions and display safe behaviours, in light of a recent experiment that found young people will accept unsafe conditions or bullying to secure employment, high-profile psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg says in this Q&A with OHS Alert.

A maintenance contractor has been ordered to pay a total of nearly $2.4 million in damages to four workers, after its failure to take adequate care when maintaining a component of a lift caused the lift to malfunction and injure the workers.

A PCBU and one of its officers have been fined $270,000 over a "litany of failures" resulting in workers suffering serious acid burns, with a judge questioning why companies licensed to handle extremely hazardous chemicals are being left to police themselves.

A company officer who took few steps to ensure workers could recognise and control safety risks, so they could respond safely to changes to their regular tasks, has been convicted and fined heavily over the crush death of a worker at a client site.

A major employer's safety fine has been nearly quadrupled to $110,000, with an appeals court finding its culpability was increased rather than mitigated by the misconduct of a "rogue" supervisor, who seriously injured a non-employee.

A PCBU and its director have been fined a total of $385,000, and handed training orders, after a worker was killed by an unsecured hose, with a court finding the director failed to ensure his company had the necessary resources to comply with WHS laws.

A PCBU's category 3 WHS penalty has been reinstated, in an appeals court case examining the "continuing duty" to ensure the safety of workers and others affected by a business or undertaking.

• SafeWork NSW issues WHS enforcement statement for COVID-19;
  
• Workers complain of poor coronavirus controls;
  
• Enforce social distancing at meal breaks, employers told;
  
• WHSQ, NHVR and ONRSR issue COVID-19 updates; and
  
• Presumptive workers' comp Bill covers workers with COVID-19.

An employer is facing a $2 million-plus damages bill, after a court found its failure to inspect and maintain road surfaces caused a worker's debilitating musculoskeletal injury.