Browsing: Duty holders | Page 86

• More duty holders charged with industrial manslaughter; and
  
• Respect@Work Bill passes without "positive" duties.

PCBUs will be required by both anti-discrimination and employment laws to proactively eliminate work-related s-xual harassment and victimisation, under proposed amendments moved in the Federal Senate. Meanwhile, Western Australians have been asked to comment on whether to add a "positive duty" to the State's equal opportunity legislation.

• COVID lockdowns creating WHS gaps, PCBUs warned; and
  
• WA releases resources and start date for WHS transition.

Regulatory strategies aimed at curbing drug use, speeding and driving while fatigued in the heavy vehicle sector are doing little to address the systemic causes of this behaviour, highlighting the urgent need for an independent body empowered to eliminate unsafe economic practices, a Senate inquiry has found.

A man has been convicted of two category-1 WHS breaches - the first reckless conduct convictions recorded in his jurisdiction. After he was sentenced, a regulator slammed his workplace's stoic culture and the inaction of witnesses to a teenage worker's serious burns.

A European holiday worker, whose heat stroke death in Queensland resulted in two WHS prosecutions, was neither acclimatised to the area nor provided with adequate opportunities to escape from the sun, a coroner has found.

An employer has agreed to implement a new permit system and other enforceable undertakings after a safety inspector witnessed its excavator enter the "no go zone" of powerlines. Meanwhile, a drug trafficker has been denied a labour-hire licence in one of a recent spate of refusals.

In one of two important judgments involving a long-running battle between an employer and a union, an appeals court has warned that a trespass finding against four WHS entry permit holders could have encouraged workplaces to deliberately obstruct such officials, hindering the objectives of safety laws.

A WHS regulator has confirmed that three workplaces have been fined heavily for COVID-19 vaccination breaches, while a survey has found many businesses are looking to mandate vaccines, and highlighted associated concerns around labour-hire arrangements.

Many workers who perform ground support tasks for mobile elevating work platforms have not been trained in emergency descent procedures, a WHS regulator has found in a campaign triggered by a fatality inquest. The regulator has also revealed its expectations around ladder use.