The safety fine imposed on a host employer that required workers to clean energised equipment has been tripled on appeal, while a company has been convicted and fined for failing to provide information to a regulator for its investigation into two deaths.
Two employers have been convicted and fined for WHS offences, after a 417-visa worker who wasn't provided with translated work instructions sustained serious arm injuries.
An appeals court has upheld a $1 million-plus injury damages award against a company, as well as a finding that the company's control of another entity extended to the supervision of OHS matters.
A second employer has been fined over guarding breaches that led to an Irish backpacker being scalped and losing an ear, while a scaffolding company has been fined heavily after an apprentice sustained debilitating electric-shock injuries in a no-go zone.
An employer previously convicted over a workplace fatality could have prevented a large gate from falling on a German national through a simple visual inspection and cost-free repairs, a court has found in fining the employer $300,000.
Investing in all the safety programs in the world is futile if your workers don't really believe they can be hurt at work, according to a safety motivational speaker who lost her lower left leg in a conveyor belt incident.
An inquest has found that a 457-visa worker fell from scaffolding and drowned after he accidentally dislodged a load-bearing wedge while, according to one expert, performing "one of the most dangerous" scaffold tasks "I have ever witnessed".
