In an unusual case, an appeals court has rejected an employer's claim that damages awarded to an employee, who was injured while visiting her workplace on her day off, should have been restricted by workers' compensation laws.
New OHS and equipment Regulations have commenced in Victoria, while other reforms and legislative instruments are expected to take effect within the next two weeks and later this year.
Safety and workers' comp laws are being amended in Queensland to allow dust victims to "re-open" lump sum claims, and crackdown on dodgy electrical work - a move driven by a workplace fatality and coronial inquest.
An employer has been ordered to pay nearly $110,000 in fines and costs after one worker was injured by an improvised vehicle attachment, and another fell in a drain. Meanwhile, a packaging business has been fined for maintenance breaches after an employee was killed.
A union has failed to prove that an employer's cost-cutting plan to reduce the number of workers required to perform high-risk tasks will make them unsafe, with the Fair Work Commission finding that no safety issues emerged during a trial of the changes.
An employer whose CEO was unaware that residual current devices (RCDs) were mandatory under the WHS Act has been charged with safety breaches, nearly four years after a worker was electrocuted.
Bills establishing Australia's "most comprehensive" safety laws for building products and a labour-hire licensing scheme have been introduced in Queensland. The State has also passed laws cracking down on infection-control breaches and improving transport safety.
A WHS fine imposed on an employer, after a worker sustained injuries resulting in quadriplegia, has been nearly doubled to $212,500 in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
