A court has stressed the importance of employers instilling a "safety consciousness" in young workers, in sentencing a PCBU whose safety breaches brought "shock, trauma, ongoing pain and disfigurement" to a teenage worker in an instant.
Two fraudsters, including one who made workers' comp claims against companies that never employed him, have been convicted and ordered to pay back more than $250,000. Meanwhile, an employer has been fined $280,000 after the fatal crushing of a worker in a trapping space it created.
More than one in two workers who were deemed, by a major study, to have poor posture while performing "pushing and pulling" tasks, developed severe lower back pain (LBP), highlighting the significant association between the two variables.
An employer has unsuccessfully challenged a hearing-loss claim by contending most of its equipment satisfied workplace health and safety requirements for lack of noisiness, with a commission finding at least one of its leaf blowers didn't fit into this category.
A company that repeatedly placed its workers in danger, including in underwater confined spaces, has been convicted and fined heavily under multiple reckless endangerment charges.
Digital monitoring systems are playing an increasing role in preventing workplace injuries and minimising the consequences of incidents and emergencies, but they can create new risks, including by "blurring" safety responsibilities, a new policy brief out of Europe has warned.
A PCBU that failed to prevent workers from taking contaminated clothing home, or tell a labourer he needed to be clean-shaven when wearing a mask, has been convicted and fined for category-3 WHS breaches.
