Employers should, from January 2012, urge contractors to conduct risk assessments for every task, even if they are not obliged under harmonised work health and safety laws to do so, OHS lawyer Jacqui Hawkins told attendees at a recent webinar.
Seemingly damning evidence of off-duty injured workers captured on Facebook or by surveillance must be viewed in the context of their medical histories, two recent workers' comp cases have shown.
South Australia to ban synthetic marijuana detected in workers; WorkSafe calls for change after issuing more than 2000 notices; and "Small" safety initiatives to be recognised in revamped Victorian awards.
Employers warned of height and storage dangers after deaths; Greens to push for automatic cancer compensation for firefighters; Western Australian employers fined for scaffold and guarding failures; and Essential safety news from around Australia.
A Victorian employer has been ordered to pay WorkCover more than $1.76 million in premiums and penalties, after the Court of Appeal found it had been paying workers' comp premiums under the wrong industry classification.
A crane driver left tetraplegic after falling 1.5 metres to the ground has failed to prove his accident, which he cannot remember and no one saw, was caused by the negligence of any of the four companies operating at a Western Australian Goldfields site.
A NSW worker who was seriously injured at a late night party at her employer's premises has won compensation, in a case that sends a warning to all employers on their liability in cases involving social functions.
WorkSafe WA has announced it will no longer pursue charges laid against Laing O'Rourke and three other employers after Cyclone George, but says it will continue its case against Fortescue. Also in this article, WorkSafe WA inspectors have issued more than 200 notices in a two-week campaign.
The manufacturer of a piece of equipment has been ordered to pay half of an injured Tasmanian worker's $400,000 damages bill, after the Supreme Court found it had been obliged, during the design process, to consider the safety of inattentive users.