Browsing: Labour hire workers | Page 6

• WHS regulator shuts sites for COVID breaches, calls in police; and
  
• Passed OHS laws increase deterrent effect of tough penalties.

• Major safety Bill passes without photograph amendments; and
  
• SWA and regulator tackle deadly risk with WHS guide and alert.

A European holiday worker, whose heat stroke death in Queensland resulted in two WHS prosecutions, was neither acclimatised to the area nor provided with adequate opportunities to escape from the sun, a coroner has found.

An employer has agreed to implement a new permit system and other enforceable undertakings after a safety inspector witnessed its excavator enter the "no go zone" of powerlines. Meanwhile, a drug trafficker has been denied a labour-hire licence in one of a recent spate of refusals.

A WHS regulator has confirmed that three workplaces have been fined heavily for COVID-19 vaccination breaches, while a survey has found many businesses are looking to mandate vaccines, and highlighted associated concerns around labour-hire arrangements.

More than seven years after a major review triggered the drafting process for new workers' comp laws in Western Australia, a Bill has finally been released for comment. It includes new requirements for labour-hire arrangements and pre-employment screening, and extends the step-down period for injured workers' payments.

A labour-hire company that failed to regularly monitor and track the movements of an employee at a host's site has been fined over the man's death. Another company - a repeat safety offender - has been fined after a labour-hire worker was struck by a forklift under a system of administrative controls.

A company and its director have failed to overturn their WHS convictions and fines by claiming they had no control over, and therefore no safety duty to, a labour-hire worker who fell through a void.

Employers will face fines of up to nearly $300,000 for entering into insurance contracts against workplace health and safety fines, under one of a series of safety amendments introduced in Victoria.

Workplace safety laws and safety-bonus schemes are likely to be overhauled, with an inquiry into a methane explosion, which seriously injured five workers, finding a major company's gas control measures couldn't cope with its high production levels, and should have been subjected to greater scrutiny from the regulator.