Browsing: Duty holders | Page 119

The director of a company with a long history of safety and entry contraventions had a "deliberate policy" to breach entry laws because he believed he was being targeted by a union, the Federal Circuit Court has found in fining the director, the company and a supervisor.

After being flagged in the State budget more than seven years ago, Western Australia has finally introduced a mirror WHS Bill, which includes a two-level industrial manslaughter offence and a new duty of care for "WHS service providers". Meanwhile, the Northern Territory's industrial manslaughter laws have passed Parliament.

Thousands of asbestos-containing materials are still in place in workplaces and homes and employers that disregard the deadly hazard are being targeted, according to warnings issued for national Asbestos Awareness Week this week. Meanwhile, the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency's functions are likely to be expanded under the recommendations of a statutory review tabled in Parliament today.

• PCBU and officer's systems failed to ensure customer's safety; and
  
• Safety management plans mandatory after NSW festivals Bill assented.

The number of serious workplace falls and related prosecutions is reaching epidemic proportions and will force courts to increase penalty levels, a judge has warned in handing a PCBU a pre-discount fine of $240,000.

A company director who acquired section-27 duties after his business partner became ill has been convicted and fined over a forklift incident, after acknowledging his company failed to apply its safety practices for offsite projects to its own workplace.

Employers that don't do enough to protect the health and safety of either workers or the community, or to address the risks posed by external sources like bushfires, have been put on notice, after Hazelwood Power Corporation Pty Ltd was found guilty of 10 OHS charges.

An employer found to have demonstrated "indifference" to the health and safety of workers affected by its undertaking has failed to overturn a damages ruling in favour of a retail giant.

• Workplace manslaughter and "crime scene" package launched;
  
• Fatigue tests trialled as truck fatalities surge; and
  
• PCBU and director charged over apprentice's electrocution.

The readiness of businesses to accept the lowest transport rates without safety considerations has "deadly" consequences for transport workers, a major occupational health meeting has heard.