Browsing: Jurisdiction (QLD) | Page 117

An employee who injured herself during a toilet break is entitled to compensation, after a court rejected her employer's claim that such a break isn't considered an "ordinary recess".

Being hit by falling objects continues to be one of the leading causes of work-related deaths in Australia, according to a major report, which has prompted questions over Western Australia's increasing fatality rate.

In only the third case of its type, a Queensland employer has entered a $200,000 enforceable undertaking under the mirror WHS laws, after two workers were injured when a tyre exploded.

Proposed and actual major changes to the harmonised WHS Acts, as well as surprising developments in the non-harmonised states, dominated OHS Alert's pages in the second quarter of 2014. Check out this review of all the most important safety and workers' compensation news from the three months to 30 June.

Another jurisdiction conducting double WHS review; Regulator targeting concrete companies as heavy vehicle trauma report released; Safety incidents cause one farm death per week; and Alerts and other safety news issued in four jurisdictions.

An employer didn't discriminate against a worker with a brain injury when it refused to offer her permanent employment unless she was capable of working night shifts, the Queensland Court of Appeal has ruled.

A Western Australian employer that failed to ensure workers adhered to a modified elevated work platform's lifting capacity has been fined for OSH breaches, after the machine was overloaded and toppled over. Also in this article, two Queensland farm workers have been killed in vehicle incidents.

Stakeholders in the harmonised states and territories are being asked to comment on whether the model WHS laws should be amended to include stricter entry rules and less prescriptive regulations - but they've been given just days to do so.

Nine more draft model WHS Codes of Practice - including those covering scaffolding, forklifts and plant supply - have been dumped in favour of guidance material.

A Queensland employer has entered into its second enforceable undertaking, in lieu of prosecution, in just over a year - this time after its workers were potentially exposed to asbestos fibres.