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An employer that pleaded not guilty to failing to implement a safety control, which it claimed would interfere with the rights of its facility residents, has been handed a low-range penalty, after a court heard it promptly improved its procedures after a man was injured.

A development company that disregarded a Code of Practice and its own procedures, apparently to save two hours of work, has been fined for safety breaches.

An employer has been convicted and fined $360,000, after its failure to address a safety risk forced a worker to improvise and lean over a six-metre-deep trench, resulting in his fatal fall.

• WHS regulator shuts sites for COVID breaches, calls in police; and
  
• Passed OHS laws increase deterrent effect of tough penalties.

An employer's system of storing stock on the ground in its busy warehouse made commercial and operative sense and was not negligent for a number of reasons, an appeals court has confirmed in rejecting an injured worker's claim for damages.

In a major report on Australia's "forced experiment" - widespread working-from-home arrangements for the pandemic - the Productivity Commission has detailed employers' WHS duties to remote workers, examined the "right to disconnect" and called for an upcoming WHS review to address the issue.

• Worker handed WHS fine for category-2 caring breaches;
  
• WA pumps funds into WHS transition; and
  
• Silica compliance improving, but air monitoring a concern.

Employers should do everything they can to encourage COVID-19 jabs because having fully vaccinated workers is "priceless", especially in the construction industry, which faces particular challenges to remaining COVID-safe and mentally healthy, an HR specialist says.

A company has been ordered to pay a worker more than $1.5 million in damages, after he suffered permanent brain damage from inhaling carbon monoxide in a work vehicle, just one day after another driver was found dead in the car.

• "Zero tolerance" workplace COVID blitz announced; and
  
• Employer fails to comply with Standard for automatic doors.