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A workplace manager did not bully a worker, but their employer dealt with the worker's grievances "clumsily", allowing misconstrued interactions to build up to a point where the mental health of both employees was affected, a commission has found.

• Double-fatality fines too low to deter safety breaches, says union; and
  
• Department of Defence charged over psychosocial risks.

A sacked worker has unsuccessfully claimed her employer breached safety laws by failing to conduct a risk assessment for a COVID-19 vaccine rule, and that her role wasn't covered by a government vaccine mandate.

Two organisations have been charged with exposing non-workers to health and safety risks, after an inquest found their "failures and shortcomings" contributed to a boy's death, and slammed one of them for attempting to deflect blame by claiming others led it "into a state of ignorance" on the relevant safety risks.

A quick coaching program can show supervisors how often they unnecessarily interrupt their staff, to the detriment of staff members' health, and help them "redesign" working arrangements, according to Swiss researchers.

• COVID odd jobs end in health and safety conviction;
  
• Alarming glut of falls reported by regulator; and
  
• Carbon monoxide warning triggered by forklift death.

A court has granted a worker leave to pursue damages for long COVID resulting from a work-related infection, rejecting submissions that her various symptoms needed to be assessed separately and none of them were serious.

Workers' compensation authorities are expected to adjust their activities to increase their focus on psychological injuries and target fraud, after a major audit found a lot of money has gone towards internal improvements, but not enough attention has been paid to return-to-work outcomes.

A full supreme court has ruled on who bears the onus of proving whether an injury was caused by reasonable management action, in a case involving a performance-managed worker forced to record all his movements in a spreadsheet.

Workers often see referrals to employee assistance programs as "cloaking punishment", but establishing workplace EAP committees that liaise with vendors can help eradicate pushback, a human resources management expert says.