In this update, OHS Alert examines the most important workplace safety and workers' comp news from the third quarter of 2014, including Safe Work Australia's controversial decision to dump draft Codes of Practice in favour of guidance packages, and other legislative developments.
A new Safe Work Australia report has found that regulators conducted 135,000 workplace visits and handed out nearly 47,000 notices in 2012-13, but the number of reactive visits is decreasing in some jurisdictions.
Workplace fatality rate creeping up in NSW; Presumptive cancer comp laws to cover all WA firefighters; and Queensland launches bullying and harassment review.
An employer might have prevented a worker's death if it ensured its maintenance regime covered vehicle modifications, and cracked down on alcohol consumption at work, an ATSB investigation has found.
NSW's dangerous goods regulations have been amended to require all tanker trailers to be retrofitted with roll-stability systems, while a Western Australian employer has been fined for unsafely storing dangerous goods. Also in this article, regulators in five jurisdictions have issued alerts after two workers were killed and other incidents.
A Western Australian employer failed to ensure the safety of a worker who was assaulted and developed PTSD, but it won't have to pay him damages, after the District Court found his permanent whole person impairment was two per cent lower than the damages threshold.
The Tasmanian Government has vowed to strengthen its mine safety laws and inspectorate, while NSW has moved a step closer to harmonising its mine safety laws, and Western Australia has released another draft version of its guide to mine safety supervision.
