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In this update, OHS Alert examines the most important workplace safety and workers' comp news from the third quarter of 2014, including Safe Work Australia's controversial decision to dump draft Codes of Practice in favour of guidance packages, and other legislative developments.

The UK's much-vaunted "fit notes" are helping employers get injured employees back to work sooner, but they come with problems of their own, a study has found.

• NSW Bill clarifies link between WHS Act and mining laws;
  
• NSW response to bullying inquiry quiet on proposed legislation; and
  
• BHPB appeals against $2.2m asbestos payout.

The Australian Mines and Metals Association has outlined how FIFO employers can improve site safety through their recruitment processes.

Proposed laws for protecting NSW public servants, and others excluded from the Fair Work Act's anti-bullying provisions, should complement the Commonwealth legislation and be overseen by the State IRC, according to State Greens MP David Shoebridge.

• Change in work hours caused compensable psych injury; and
  
• Premium cuts in SA unlikely without proposed reforms.

A Supreme Court judge has rejected an employer's claim that a 67-year-old injured worker's weekly benefits couldn't be "continued" because he applied for a continuation after his payments ceased.

• NSW employers fined 5% of maximum WHS penalty;
  
• Employers fined over double fatality and drunken forklift incident; and
  
• Healthy ACT workplaces could win free advertising.

A company that created a "hidden danger" when it loaded a truck is more liable for a worker's serious injuries than the worker's employer, the NSW Court of Appeal has found in a $5.75 million damages case.

Two workers who were sacked for failing to identify a seriously damaged hoist rope during pre-start checks of a tower crane have been awarded compensation, even though their conduct could have had "catastrophic safety implications".