The passage of an amended industrial manslaughter Bill, through South Australia's Parliament, has been described as a "game-changer" for WHS compliance. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth jurisdiction's WHS Act is being amended to empower those directly affected by workplace safety incidents to provide advice to regulators.
At the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, which kicked off in Sydney today, the International Labour Organisation will announce a new strategy to accelerate health and safety progress. The ILO warns that work-related accidents and diseases are causing the deaths of nearly three million workers each year.
Company executives must ensure systems are in place to deal with non-compliance with safety requirements and those systems are properly monitored, a regulator has stressed after an employer was handed a record recklessness fine relating to the deaths of four police officers.
A PCBU that was fined $250,000, in relation to the drowning deaths of two overseas students, has failed to reduce its penalty by claiming it was blamed for the omissions of others. A judge stressed that WHS duties are not transferrable and the legislation "demands a proactive approach".
The operator of the inflatable jumping castle that six children were using when they sustained fatal injuries at the Hillcrest Primary School in Tasmania, in December 2021, has been charged with a mid-level WHS offence.
A company that was prosecuted, over a high-profile fatality, for breaching its safety duties as a supplier of plant, has unsuccessfully argued that its $400,000 penalty was excessive because it had no control over the location of workers when the incident occurred.
The workplace health and safety contraventions of the company that managed the New Zealand volcanic island that erupted and killed 22 tourists and workers in 2019, included its failure to respond to a 2016 eruption by re-evaluating its risk assessment processes, a judge has found.
A coronial inquest into the "violent and tragic" death of a bus driver, who was set on fire by a passenger, has outlined the "extensive and commendable" post-incident steps taken by the driver's employer and others to improve the safety of workers and members of the public.
A major energy company that failed to implement an adequate visual inspection regime for power poles, and a business that failed to manage asphyxia risks, have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 over fatalities. Meanwhile, duty holders have been urged to assess the risk of heat-related illnesses, after an outdoor worker died in hot weather.
