The sudden large-scale uptake of telework, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has "amplified" a range of physical and psychosocial occupational risks, but key prevention measures for employers can be as simple as disseminating pragmatic information on ergonomics and facilitating "virtual collective working periods", according to French researchers.
Workers working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic are having varying experiences, and some, like those simultaneously home-schooling their kids, are likely to be struggling, a workplace researcher says. She says employers must be on top of the personal factors affecting remote workers' health.
Employers have been urged to resist intensifying work demands or ramping up surveillance of workers working at home because of COVID-19, to avoid worsening the mental health challenges already posed by the pandemic. Meanwhile, Tasmania has released a pandemic planning guide for workplaces.
Determining liability for COVID-19 cases will involve a wide range of challenges, including where an employer has induced or encouraged workers to be somewhere where they are at risk of infection, or a worker has contracted the virus while working from home, according to one of Aon's WHS leaders.
With many workers now in their third or fourth week of working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, a psychologist and employee assistance expert has revealed how workers are coping with the isolation, the types of anxieties they're experiencing, and what employers can do to mitigate the mental health risks.
The coronavirus pandemic poses major health risks to frontline workers, but other less obvious serious safety issues will arise from pandemic-related job insecurity and prolonged teleworking, a leading Australian occupational and environmental physician has warned.
With many workers being forced to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, employers are being warned about Australia's complacency around fire safety and smoke alarm compliance.
A woman whose working-from-home hours stretched beyond her scheduled nine-to-five work time was in the course of employment when she was killed by her partner, an appeals court has confirmed.
Managers in senior WHS roles and other statutory positions will be the only fly-in-fly-out workers permitted to enter Queensland under a new coronavirus control plan. Meanwhile, mining giants BHP and Fortescue have revealed their latest strategies for protecting personnel from the pandemic.
