Browsing: Duty holders | Page 119

A leading safety lawyer has warned that the fourth industrial revolution is shifting rather than eliminating WHS risks, and called for international regulations to prevent the emergence of "safety havens", where organisations can make unsafe decisions affecting other jurisdictions without fear of prosecution.

A supervisor directed a subcontractor to perform a task that resulted in the contractor breaching its own safe work method statement and seriously injured a worker, a judge has found. He ordered the supervisor's company to pay $145,000 in fines and costs over a risk it later eliminated with a $792 investment.

Employers would be wise to assess the safety features of their vehicle fleet, with an automobile safety expert telling a major scientific meeting that cars driven for work are 30 per cent more likely to be in a car crash than those used privately.

The workplace manslaughter laws introduced in Victoria on Tuesday could capture workplace practices that "fail to create a culture of compliance", actions that cause a mental illness that leads to death, and negligent conduct or fatalities that occur in other jurisdictions, the State Government has revealed.

In convicting an individual for WHS breaches, a judge has reminded duty holders of an often-overlooked strategy for eliminating or minimising the risks associated with a task: not performing the task at all until all safety issues or breaches have been resolved.

Head contractors on Commonwealth-funded projects cannot satisfy the requirement to conduct a minimum number of random drug and alcohol tests each month by counting pre-employment or for-cause tests, a fitness-for-work audit program has highlighted.

A major employer's duties as the occupier of a premises did not extend to ensuring a specialist contractor, engaged by another company, strictly complied with suitable safe work method statements, an appeals court has confirmed in an important damages case.

A PCBU accused of failing to separate pedestrians from mobile plant has become the first entity to be charged with industrial manslaughter under section 34C of the Queensland WHS Act. Its two company directors were charged with reckless conduct.

• Work fatality inquest followed by vehicle warning; and
  
• WHS recommendations made after maintenance incident.

A major WHS audit, prompted by two scissor lift fatalities and a coronial inquest, has warned that introducing mobile plant to "reduce risk factors" can "present new ones", and outlined safety factors to consider when using elevating work platforms.