Browsing: Jurisdiction (NSW) | Page 14

An employer that failed to carry out a "diligent investigation" into serious allegations against a worker has been found liable for his psychological injury.

A commission full bench has quashed a decision exculpating a worker of sackable misconduct in engaging in a scuffle with a member of the public, in an important decision examining the test to be applied when a worker claims self-defence.

A commission has refused a worker stop-bullying orders in a case providing "lessons" on change management failures, which previously led to an organisation losing an adverse action case and being handed a $12,000 penalty.

The NSW Government has introduced WHS amendments tripling the maximum penalties for category-1 breaches, clarifying that officers can be prosecuted for recklessness, introducing "prohibited asbestos notices" with hefty non-compliance fines, and giving police certain enforcement powers under WHS laws.

A large employer has been found guilty of WHS offences, after a court rejected its claims that a worker was struck by falling 700kg objects because she deliberately breached a work practice passed on through a buddy system.

• WHS tool for extreme weather launched, applies to city PCBUs;
  
• Seven more safety Codes under review in NSW;
  
• WHS Codes made and varied in NT, new safety laws delayed; and
  
• Roll-away alert issued in SA.

A large company that allowed an untrained and unlicensed worker to operate a forklift daily, and committed multiple breaches of its own safety systems, has been convicted and fined $300,000 after a man suffered traumatic injuries.

A government employee was unfairly sacked for "bullying and intimidation" after voluntarily involving herself in a stranger's child custody dispute while she was on unpaid leave, a commission has ruled, finding her actions weren't bullying within the meaning of WHS laws or the dictionary.

A PCBU has been convicted and fined for WHS breaches that involved a worker's decision to operate mobile plant that wasn't fitted with FOPS - falling object protective structures.

A worker who fell from a ladder at home and broke her wrist has proved the injury was causally connected to her work-related knee injury, with a commission ordering her former employer to pay for all her reasonably necessary medical treatments.