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An employer has been fined $450,000, over an injury-causing fall, in one of the first cases finalised under Western Australia's toughened penalty regime, while a business with a poor communication system has been fined heavily over a fatal forklift incident.

• Tiered system guides workplace COVID vaccine mandates; and
  
• Burnout targeted in latest draft safety Code from WA.

An employer that failed to implement a safe system for inflating tyres has been fined $200,000, after a worker was killed in a "percussive pressure" incident. Meanwhile, a company and its director have been sentenced for repeatedly refusing to allow WHS inspectors to enter a workplace.

An employer should have insisted on using its proposed safety controls after a principal contractor rejected a quote covering the measures, a court has found in convicting the employer over an incident where three workers fell.

More than seven years after a major review triggered the drafting process for new workers' comp laws in Western Australia, a Bill has finally been released for comment. It includes new requirements for labour-hire arrangements and pre-employment screening, and extends the step-down period for injured workers' payments.

A PCBU has been charged with the industrial manslaughter of a worker in a powerlines incident, and could be fined up to $11.5 million, in the first case of its kind under electrical safety laws.

A workplace fatality, which led to a $250,000 WHS fine, occurred in circumstances where the contrast between the instructions provided to workers with limited English and what supervisors allowed to occur gave rise "to an understandable level of confusion about what was, and was not, permitted", an inquest has found.

A company and its clinical director have been fined a total of nearly $730,000 for failing to develop comprehensive safety plans for clients, and other breaches, after a client with multiple sclerosis lost consciousness and later died.

• WHS manslaughter Bill passes, provides more enforcement "avenues"; and
  
• COVID vaccine mandate lacked WHS consultation: union.

An 82-year-old company director has been convicted and fined $125,000 over the death of his friend, with a judge rejecting claims that his age reduced the seriousness of his offence, and saying a "strong message needs to be sent to company directors whose companies place employees and others in highly dangerous situations".