Browsing: Jurisdiction (SA) | Page 13

A manufacturing company that used its own personnel to perform a high-risk maintenance task, without obtaining appropriate safety equipment or expert help, has been convicted and fined $100,000 over the death of a worker in a 6.5-metre fall.

An Australian study has found a strong psychosocial safety climate (PSC) at an organisational level reduces digital job demands for remote workers and reduces their work-life conflict. It highlights key steps employers can take to increase PSC levels to improve both worker wellbeing and job performance.

A PCBU has been convicted of WHS contraventions resulting in an employee's arm becoming entrapped in an unguarded conveyer belt roller, with a tribunal rejecting its claim that no conviction should be recorded because of the remedial measures it implemented after the incident.

A former Federal Court judge has found a WHS regulator's post-inquest investigation into the murder of a nurse was "comprehensive and thorough", but flagged WHS amendments around prosecution procedures and information disclosures, given these matters caused considerable distress to the nurse's family.

In this report, OHS Alert reviews all the key work health and safety and workers' compensation developments from the second quarter of 2022. Highlights include major changes to the model WHS Act and Regulations, High Court judgments, inquests into work-related deaths, an inquiry into harassment, and "claim farming" bans.

A PCBU has been accused of breaching WHS laws in failing to provide personal protective equipment, like a duress alarm, to a s-xually-assaulted worker, in the latest of a series of major cases against duty holders in the disability services sector in South Australia.

A tribunal has upheld an electrician's noise-induced hearing loss claim, after finding his last place of employment was unable to prove it was not responsible.

• Model WHS amendments for silica flagged in RIS;
  
• Workplace violence and lead (Pb) targeted in SA; and
  
• SafeWork NSW's "Speak Up" app hits 10,000 reports.

• Express dust ban with $1.5m WHS fine introduced in SA; and
  
• New WHS guidance covers crystalline silica risks.

An employer's WHS duties to the operators of heavy vehicles, and the members of the public they encounter, go far beyond ensuring drivers are properly licensed, a recent superior court case involving a double fatality and a dozen WHS charges has shown.