In this major report, OHS Alert examines all the must-know WHS and workers' comp developments from the third quarter of 2022, including the introduction of laws and codes tackling psychosocial hazards, wholesale changes to workplace COVID-19 rules, and the launch of safety prosecutions linked to dozens of COVID deaths.
Individuals and businesses have been warned against rorting the injury compensation system, after a worker was handed a suspended prison sentence in one of a string of recent cases targeting fraudsters.
High-risk work licence holders and the entities that engage them have been warned to operate plant within the rated capacities and capabilities, while a regulator has outlined seven steps employers can take to manage wet weather hazards, with torrential rain forecast.
The injuries sustained by a worker at an alcohol-fuelled work Christmas party occurred in the course of her employment and not during a "social" activity, an appeals bench has ruled in rejecting a regulator's bid to block her claim.
The independent reviewer of South Australia's WHS regulator must "ensure that the management of psychological injury is central to any recommendations", given provisions explicitly obligating PCBUs to control psychosocial risks were recently added to the national model WHS Regulations, a peak union body says.
A PCBU and its director were on notice from a 2014 regulatory visit and prohibition notice of their WHS duty to properly guard machinery, a tribunal has ruled in convicting and fining them over a worker's 2020 degloving injury.
