Browsing: Jurisdiction (VIC) | Page 4

Employers must apply the hierarchy of controls to the hazards associated with height work, which starts with not performing any such work where reasonably practicable, a regulator has advised in launching a major blitz.

A company has been convicted and fined $1.3 million in Victoria's first finalised workplace manslaughter case. Its director was also charged with manslaughter, but pleaded guilty to a less serious offence.

• WHS notices reach $1m after judge's referral;
  
• Employers charged over deaths at mental health unit and nursery; and
  
• Right-to-disconnect laws tweaked to avoid criminal proceedings.

The sentencing regime for workplace health and safety offences could be amended to ensure penalties have a "real economic impact" on large companies, and to enable imprisonment for more types of offences, under changes flagged by Victoria's Sentencing Advisory Council.

• Missing signage and access issues among multiple chemical breaches; and
  
• Draft safety laws include mandatory jail for most offenders.

A worker has unsuccessfully claimed he was unfairly sacked for raising safety concerns, with a commission hearing a safety regulator investigated and dismissed his concerns, and finding he was sacked for being unable to perform the inherent requirements of his role.

A worker has been convicted of safety breaches that caused a colleague to become crushed between two vehicles and sustain life-threatening injuries, with a court finding he should have been aware of the danger his co-worker was in.

• Work-related fire risks must be monitored under national system;
  
• WHS amendments followed by WHSQ review; and
  
• OHS amendments create new licence in Vic.

The attitudes of workplace health and safety representatives towards the "momentous" legislative changes creating new duties for psychosocial risks will be crucial to the successful implementation of the laws, a study has found.

The final quarter of 2023 was marked by wholesale WHS changes affecting all duty holders. This report examines the amendments, as well as changes to other laws and all the need-to-know caselaw from the period.