Browsing: Injury prevention | Page 231

Two NSW company directors charged over a workplace death have failed in their High Court bid to have the case against them dismissed based on the landmark Kirk case.

Employers must consider previously unthought-of hazards - such as typing and handling mail - when conducting risk assessments, or risk breaching the manual task provisions of the harmonised WHS Regulations, according to a specialist workplace lawyer.

Fair Work Australia has dismissed an engineer's beard-related unfair dismissal claim after it found it was not unusual or unlawful to require employees to modify their appearance for OHS reasons. Also in this article, a Victorian worker who injured his back eight years ago has been granted leave to seek damages for a mental disorder.

WorkCover NSW and WorkSafe Victoria have clarified the alarming cost of workers' compensation claims for stress, industrial deafness and musculoskeletal disorders, and outlined what they plan to do to help employers reduce them.

Contract workers are often inexperienced and more susceptible to injury than full-time employees, WorkSafe WA's Jane Ardern has warned, in outlining seven ways to ensure contractors comply with safety rules.

Only one jurisdiction - South Australia - is on track to reach the target set by the 2002-2012 National OHS Strategy for reducing workplace injury rates, according to Safe Work Australia's latest comparative report.

Driver handed safety fine over death of Mr Ward; and Workplace suicide-prevention program launched in Western Australia.

A transport regulator chief has called for employers to provide safer environments, saying safety management systems are often ignored, and heavy vehicles are over-represented in rail-related accidents causing death.

Australia's OHS regulators will from January focus on "encouraging and assisting compliance" with the Work Health and Safety Act in the event of an alleged breach, and will be more likely to investigate employers that have been issued improvement notices in the past, according to the National Compliance and Enforcement Policy.

The NSW Government will tackle increasing mesothelioma rates by tasking WorkCover, and a co-ordinated group of State authorities, with managing the risks posed by asbestos in the workplace and the broader environment.