Browsing: Jurisdiction (National) | Page 13

• Workplace exposure standard for fumes slashed today;
  
• Vic responds to fumes amendment with tips for employers; and
  
• Comcare warns of big fines, reveals manslaughter start date.

• New and existing psychosocial Codes must be applied together;
  
• WHS Code amended to address major fatality risk; and
  
• RTW guide and template released.

An eight-item questionnaire to detect sleep apnoea in at-risk workers has proved to be an effective and low-cost way to screen a workforce for a condition that poses significant safety and health risks, researchers say.

A tribunal has granted a regulator access to an injured worker's medical records from 13 different entities, finding her objections around privacy were understandable but outweighed by other considerations.

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 major government employer has been fined $600,000 over a train fatality and injuries that occurred in circumstances where drivers had a restricted view, and that triggered mandatory reviews of safety systems for a high-risk procedure.

Workplace safety professionals were among the first to foresee the extensive threats created by COVID-19, showing that involving them more in emergency decision-making can facilitate more effective responses for organisations and the community, an international study has found.

Safe Work Australia has committed to immediately drafting changes to the national model WHS laws to reflect the outcomes of yesterday's WHS ministers meeting on engineered stone and other issues. The non-harmonised state of Victoria will make similar changes to its safety legislation.

Australia's WHS ministers have unanimously agreed to prohibit the use, manufacture and supply of engineered stone, under a plan that will be matched with a "complementary customs prohibition" on the material, and new WHS laws for all industries where crystalline silica is present.

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.