Twelve Victorian entities, including a workplace supervisor, have been ordered to pay a total of nearly $340,000 in fines and costs for height and other safety breaches, including one that left a worker in a wheelchair.
A worker who suffered a psychiatric injury after she was removed from higher duties has been denied workers' compensation in the AAT. Also in this article, the Tribunal has found a bus driver who aggravated a back injury when he drove over a bump in the road is entitled to compensation.
A South Australian employer that failed to ensure delivery drivers stood in safety zones while their vehicles were unloaded has been fined $80,000, after a truck driver was crushed by a 1.7-tonne machine, sustaining numerous debilitating injuries.
The life-span of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal could prove very short, with Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz announcing a review into whether it imposes "onerous and unnecessary compliance burdens" on employers.
Queensland has confirmed that a host of transitional arrangements for its mirror WHS Regulation will be extended by 12 months, while two model Codes of Practice will take effect in less than two weeks.
Employers are being urged to reconsider the length of night shifts for contractors, after a study found the odds of an "event" resulting in a mining contractor's death - instead of an injury or near miss - increased after eight hours into shifts beginning at 11pm.
A major Safe Work Australia report has found that 63 per cent of the work-related deaths that occurred in 2012 involved vehicles, while falling objects also caused a high-proportion of deaths. SWA has also released a special report on deaths and injuries arising from falls from height.
A worker has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission that his positive drug test was "exacerbated" by the surge of adrenalin he experienced while fighting a fire on a front-end loader.
