A regulator has warned employers of the unique risks summer poses to their workers - and they're not all heat-related. Meanwhile, researchers have found 50 per cent of Australia's outdoor workers aren't provided with sunscreen.
Low management buy-in and climate-change scepticism are just two of a number of barriers to protecting workers from heat-related illnesses and injuries, Australian researchers have found.
Employers are being advised to establish a "workplace heat alert system", after Australian researchers found occupational heat illness claims increase by nearly 13 per cent for every one-degree rise in temperature during hot conditions.
Australian researchers are urging employers to manage workplace heat stress, after finding - in the first study of its kind - that lost productivity and absenteeism attributable to heat cost the economy $7.8 billion a year.
A NSW employer and a director have been found guilty of failing to train a worker - who sustained serious burns - to safely handle chemicals, after a judge rejected their claim that this wasn't part of her duties.
Employers are being urged to apply higher-order hazard controls wherever practicable, after a new Safe Work Australia report found that more than three in five workers are regularly exposed to multiple hazards associated with occupational diseases.