A host employer has been ordered to pay nearly $600,000 to a worker who injured her back using incorrect work methods, after a court of appeal majority confirmed that it failed to ensure she had "absorbed" her instructions.
An employer has successfully argued, on appeal, that there was no evidence a worker sustained a back injury three days after, rather than two days before, she ceased working for a labour-hire company and became a permanent employee.
The "blurring of legal obligations" has resulted in the deterioration of safety standards in the Queensland labour-hire industry, three members of a parliamentary inquiry have warned.
An appeal court has upheld a decision denying a worker $710,000 in damages, after finding a labour-hire company had no control over the employee who allegedly caused his injuries.
Two employers have been fined a total of $690,000 for serious safety incidents involving labour-hire companies, with one resulting in the death of a 15-year-old boy. In the other, a migrant worker sustained extensive burns after being told he had to use an online dictionary to translate his work instructions into his native Mandarin.
A regulator is cracking down on labour-hire companies and host employers that fraudulently under-declare wages for workers' comp purposes, and has successfully prosecuted two workers for injury fraud, including one who was caught playing cricket and football while receiving total incapacity payments.
