Browsing: Duty holders | Page 96

Employers will have an explicit positive duty to eliminate workplace s-xual harassment and discrimination, under laws flagged in response to the latest major review of the issue. The review identified barriers to tackling harassment "through a WHS lens".

A man who allegedly failed to act on a first-aid assessment of a teenage worker's severe burns could be jailed for up to five years, after being charged with two category-1 WHS offences.

A PCBU that endangered "other persons" by allowing an unqualified worker to perform high-risk crane work has been convicted and fined $170,000, in the latest of a series of cases involving the prosecution of multiple duty holders.

A PCBU has been fined for failing to report a head knock to a regulator, while a worker who should have refused his employer's request to carry out unsafe work has been fined over a co-worker's injuries, and a man has been penalised for his "disgraceful" asbestos breaches.

An employer's failure to address the obvious risks posed by its "incredibly cluttered" warehouse set off a "catastrophic" sequence of events, and has led to a $5.6 million damages award to an injured worker.

A labour-hire company and a host employer have both been fined for safety failures relating to unguarded plant, with a court outlining the measures the former could have taken to prevent an injury and prosecution.

An employer has unsuccessfully challenged a $2.5 million injury damages bill relating to work road maintenance failures. An appeals court rejected its claim that the injured worker was contributorily negligent in failing to satisfy the "high" duty of care owed by drivers.

• Safety enforcement driven by maintenance-crash findings; and
  
• Electrical and violence issues found in childcare WHS blitz.

A PCBU that failed to issue safety directions to a subcontractor has been fined $500,000 over the death of a labour-hire worker, bringing the total penalties for the incident to nearly $1 million.

• Business owner fined heavily for COVID breaches;
  
• Employer and director fined over bypassed safety mechanisms; and
  
• Vic opens safety awards, reveals financial results and issues fatality alert.