Browsing: Industrial/employment issues | Page 7

A major organisation partly run by BHP has been fined $120,000 for undermining safety protections, and ordered to pay compensation to labour-hire personnel who were targeted after exercising their workplace rights over a dimly lit area and lightning storms.

A company director and three PCBUs, including an importer, have been handed pre-discount WHS fines totalling $1.25 million, after a worker suffered finger amputations on a machine previously shut down by a regulator.

Managers have been urged to target the factors that exacerbate work stress and lead to sleep disorders, with a 12-year study suggesting this can reduce the risk of "poorer work ability trajectories" among older workers.

An "exasperated" manager did not bully workers by using allegedly hostile tones to "hustle" them to get on with their tasks, a commission has found, highlighting that managers are "entitled to some latitude" when assessing the manner they adopt to supervise personnel.

A company director has been convicted and fined for a string of "disturbing" acts of bullying against two apprentices, including at a work Christmas party. A court found his company's safety failings were solely attributable to him.

The efforts, or lack thereof, of employers to comply with their positive duty to proactively prevent s-xual harassment will be actively scrutinised by at least one more regulator from today, with the Australian Human Rights Commission's new powers taking effect.

Two PCBUs have been convicted and fined a total of more than $530,000 for multiple WHS contraventions, after a heavy object fell and smashed a glass atrium roof, seriously injuring a site worker and a passing courier.

A new worker sustained an amputation injury after receiving a five-minute training session on a hazardous machine with an out-of-reach emergency stop button, a court has found in fining her employer.

Sydney Trains has been: ordered to reinstate a worker dismissed for testing positive to cocaine metabolites after returning from leave; and censured for failing to learn from previous criticisms of its approach to enforcing its drug and alcohol policy.

A WHS regulator will enforce the utilisation of risk assessments for psychosocial hazards in psychologically dangerous workplaces, under one of 18 recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry into NSW's workers' compensation system.