Browsing: Equipment and plant | Page 8

An employer that failed to take steps to avoid very obvious safety risks has had its safety fine more than doubled on resentencing, over an incident demonstrating the legislative requirement to pair high level controls with proactive training and supervision.

• WHS regulator targeting numerous NSW businesses;
  
• Key WHS measure for Cth parliamentary workplaces introduced; and
  
• WHS Regulations amended in WA.

• Recklessness fine followed by site-preservation conviction; and
  
• Refugee advocates concerned by developments in WHS cases.

• Falling-object prosecution avoided through EU; and
  
• New Code covers WHS and electricity compliance in WA.

The resurgence of debilitating lung diseases in a major industry has come with a shift in disease type and severity, which researchers have attributed to modern work methods. They say their findings highlight the importance of controlling respirable dust.

A business owner could be jailed for up to five years, after he was charged with reckless conduct relating to a similar incident to one that recently attracted a record WHS penalty. Meanwhile, a train driver who was accused of recklessly using his mobile phone has been sentenced.

Two companies have been ordered to pay a total of more than $1.2 million in damages to a worker who slipped and fell 10 metres from an access ladder that didn't comply with Australian Standards.

• SWA outlines work-from-home duties in new resources;
  
• Model WHS amendments for silica applied in SA; and
  
• Paid FDV leave extended to many workers.

A PCBU breached its WHS duties by failing to alert an industrial complex's owners corporation or strata manager to the dangers posed by a damaged gate, which ultimately fell and killed a worker, a court has found in convicting and fining the PCBU $375,000.

A PCBU that responded to a WHS regulator's notice by implementing safety devices, but later removed them, has been fined $100,000 over an amputation incident. The same regulator has issued an alert after a similar incident that killed a worker.