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Resources giant BHP has been ordered to pay nearly $600,000 in damages to a worker who was injured in an incident that also attracted a safety fine. The man hurt his back and developed post-traumatic stress disorder after an unsafe BHP road forced him to engage in dangerous driving.

Australia's S-x Discrimination Commissioner has called on safety practitioners, HR managers, regulators and other stakeholders to re-examine and improve their understanding of what constitutes workplace s-xual harassment.

The Qantas Group has highlighted its duty to provide the "safest possible environment" to its employees, and the fact that a single worker can come into contact with thousands of people in a single day, in announcing a two-part COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its workforce.

A PCBU that didn't take steps to prevent workers accessing or operating machinery awaiting repairs has been convicted of a criminal offence and fined $150,000, after four of a worker's fingers were amputated.

Australia's WHS regulators are likely to amend their statements of regulatory intent to protect employers that don't mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, and are cracking down on the unlawful performance of non-essential work, with closure orders and high fines.

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.