A safety incident has just occurred at your workplace. What happens next? OHS lawyer Michael Selinger has outlined the numerous steps employers should take immediately following an incident.
Apprentice-related supervision breaches can lead to recklessness fines; Queensland removes earthmoving requirement from WHS Regulation; and South Australian WHS Act added to Fair Work right-of-entry laws.
A new Safe Work Australia guide, designed to help PCBUs comply with their duty to do what is "reasonably practicable" to ensure health and safety, explains how much weight employers can place on costs when deciding whether or not to adopt a hazard control.
Are the officers of a PCBU required - under s27(5)(a) of the model WHS Act - to be aware of a study on hazards relating to their industry that is published in a Russian or a Brazilian journal?
HR managers and others considered "officers" under the model WHS Act should be licensed, and undergo a yearly review or retraining, OHS law experts Professor Richard Johnstone and Michael Tooma say in a new book.
Labour-law expert Professor Ron McCallum has given the OHS harmonisation process the "thumbs up", but expressed dismay at Victoria's reluctance to adopt the new laws. Also in this article, manufacturing employers and others have been warned they could be captured by the model Act's broad definition of "construction work".
Safe Work Australia has released a Q&A to address another harmonisation "misconception", this time relating to how strata title bodies corporate are affected by the model WHS laws.
A new resources kit has been released to "address any lingering confusion" over the impact of harmonised work health and safety laws on the volunteer sector.
Designers of structures are obligated, under the harmonised WHS Act, to provide safety information to "any person who carries out activities in relation to the structure" if requested, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland says in a Q&A for the construction sector.