A PCBU's failure to risk assess how its work interacted with neighbouring properties, public access areas and obstructions, posed "extreme" harm to others, a court has found in convicting and fining it $300,000.
A dangerous machine's "confusing" control panel, combined with inadequate high- and low-order safety controls, contributed to the crush death of a worker that initiated a string of (ultimately unsuccessful) prosecutions, a coronial inquest has found.
All of Australia's eight harmonised WHS jurisdictions have now formally applied or committed to adopting provisions explicitly requiring PCBUs to manage psychosocial risks through a risk management process.
An electricity company has spent nearly $14 million on a safety overhaul, and committed a further $1 million to safety undertakings to avoid prosecution over an electric-shock incident that occurred just months before one of its workers died in similar circumstances.
An employer's delayed and error-ridden safety investigation has helped a dismissed worker defeat a claim that he breached lock-out-tag-out (LOTO) rules and win reinstatement and compensation.
A commission has rejected an employer's contentions that: a "violent and painful" work incident could not have caused a worker's stress disorder; and her ability to undertake "suitable duties" not long after the incident blocked her incapacity claim.
A worker could be jailed for up to five years, after being charged with recklessly endangering a colleague who was killed by a toppling forklift load. Meanwhile, a safety regulator has issued a special warning to "pranksters", after five workers sustained burns in a gas explosion.
A worker who sustained a permanent impairment from slipping on stairs at his workplace has been denied damages, with a court finding his employer had taken reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of slipping, and the worker had descended the stairs imprudently.