In the latest of a recent series of WHS prosecutions involving failures affecting vulnerable people like children, a teacher based in another country has been sentenced over the deaths of two teenage students in Australia.
The recent major review of a safety regulator should prompt employers to adopt a "two birds, one stone" mindset for managing their health and safety and human resources practices, a senior safety lawyer says.
A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount WHS fine of $400,000, after a worker was fatally struck on the head while performing maintenance work on a machine at a site that was subject to multiple improvement notices.
A workplace supervisor has been sentenced for recklessly allowing a drug-affected truck driver to drive and kill four police officers, but cleared of allegations he would have known the driver was in an unfit state just by looking at him. He was originally charged with four counts of manslaughter.
A PCBU has lost its last-resort bid to block its WHS prosecution over the drowning deaths of a father and son, with a superior court describing its latest jurisdictional challenge as an "unacceptable fragmentation of the criminal proceeding".
An employer has pleaded guilty to 16 safety breaches and been hit with $545,000 in fines, including over fire safety failures that led to staff using a flammable liquid and cardboard instead of a fire extinguisher to put out a fire on a machine and on two workers.
A beleaguered aerospace giant's safety reporting system discourages staff reports through fear of retaliation, while many workers are unaware of the operation of, or their place in, the company's safety management system, a major review has found.
An appeals court has upheld the acquittals of two PCBUs charged over the hypothermia death of a helicopter pilot, confirming that the "cascading" series of WHS measures they allegedly failed to adopt were not reasonably practicable.
A recent workers' comp dispute has illustrated the "tricky climate" new legislation on workplace s-xual harassment has created for employers, and the need to adapt processes to specific complaints, a senior safety and employment lawyer says.