Two employers have unsuccessfully attempted to avoid liability for workplace injuries by (in the first case) relying on a consultant psychiatrist's unfounded claim that a worker was a "heavy drinker", and (in the second) contending a condition arose from a non-work-related restraining order application.
A worker who was on "availability duty" when he broke his leg, while walking his dog, was injured in the course of his employment, a tribunal has ruled, finding his employer's interpretation of the High Court test for interval injuries was too narrow.
In this major report, OHS Alert examines all the must-know work health and safety, workers' compensation and work-related COVID-19 developments from the fourth quarter of 2020, with highlights including a series of important legislative changes and near-record WHS fines.
OHS Alert is taking a break for a few weeks, and we're leaving you with a list of our most popular articles from the last 12 months - a list dominated by our leading stories on managing the work-related risks of COVID-19, and high-profile court cases.
Workplaces like healthcare facilities should apply the hierarchy of controls to respiratory protection programs and test all relevant staff, regardless of symptoms, when an outbreak of coronavirus or similar occurs, the independent review of the COVID-19 outbreak in north-west Tasmania has found.
An employer's evidence disputing a worker's claims of bullying and "toxic" conditions fell well short of the evidentiary expectations set by a supreme court chief justice, a tribunal has ruled.
A commission has rejected an employer's claim that it was unable to make reasonable return-to-work adjustments for a worker who suffered a cardiac arrest, finding it ignored medical advice that his work capacity could improve with "an appropriate period of work hardening".
