Browsing: Jurisdiction (QLD) | Page 10

A government employer has been ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in damages to a worker injured by an agitated and aggressive client, with a court finding it was negligent through the failures of two security guards who let the worker help them restrain the client.

• Lendlease fined over exclusion-zone failure;
  
• Early planning and consultation urged after crane fatality; and
  
• Injury premiums up again in Qld.

A local council has failed to avoid prosecution over the drowning deaths of a father and son by claiming it was wrongly charged under WHS legislation.

The Federal Court has overturned a finding that two union officials made homophobic slurs towards a project's safety advisor. The Court reduced their pecuniary penalties, but confirmed they "deliberately" breached the site's WHS requirements.

A dysfunctional working relationship did not involve bullying exposing a worker to safety risks, a commission has found in rejecting the worker's bid for stop-bullying orders.

An employer breached its duty of care by failing to protect a worker from recrimination after he "dobbed" on a supervisor who assaulted him, a court has found, noting the employer's own policies foresaw the risk of psychological injury in such circumstances.

A giant global oil and gas services company has failed in its renewed bid to have its workers' compensation industry classification changed, in a move that could have slashed its premiums by more than 60 per cent.

Harmonised WHS laws and their prescriptive consultation requirements have been in place in most jurisdictions for more than a decade, but there have been few duty-to-consult prosecutions. According to a WHS lawyer, this could be because regulators prefer to conflate consultation failings with more serious breaches to pursue higher penalties.

• Worker faces jail for reckless mobile phone breach; and
  
• Electrical safety overhaul to include WHS alignment in Qld.

The workplace safety prosecutions of a company, a senior officer and three workers - relating to a death and a non-fatal incident - have been allowed to proceed, with a judge quashing an earlier decision to strike out the complaints for technical reasons, including that some were filed in the wrong court.