Three employers have been ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in safety fines and reparations, after two workers were killed - including one who worked nearly 200 hours in the two weeks before his death - and a geotechnical report was ignored.
Managers who undergo mental health training feel more capable of supporting staff, but the flow-on effects for employees are unclear, according to a major review. However, the lead researcher tells OHS Alert that this should not deter organisations from implementing such important programs.
A major, incident-strewn road construction project under unprecedented government scrutiny has been ordered to cease work over new safety concerns, while an ongoing study has found that training supervisors to risk-manage manual tasks can slash musculoskeletal claims.
A site safety officer, a supervisor, a crane driver and a crane dogman could be jailed for years, after being charged with category 1 WHS breaches or manslaughter in relation to the death of a worker at the University of Canberra Hospital construction site.
A worker suing his former employer for $1.8 million in damages for a psychiatric injury has failed to convince a superior court his condition was caused by a "flatulent" supervisor bullying him over the phone about his performance.
A teenage apprentice was killed while undertaking a task that should have been performed by a "competent person" within the meaning of a WHS Code, a court has found in fining his host employer $405,000.
An employer has been convicted and fined $350,000, after its supervisor left the keys in a skid steer loader and a non-worker was killed in the vehicle. Meanwhile, a contracting company and one of its employees have been fined for failing to ensure the safety of an apprentice, with the employee receiving harsher penalties than his employer.
A coroner has expressed dismay at a major employer and a regulator concluding that a supervisor died because he failed to follow a safe working procedure, without considering the adequacy of the man's training and qualifications for the high-risk task that killed him.
An employer has been convicted and fined $135,000 after a worker was seriously injured in an incident that could have been avoided by consulting a readily available Safe Work Australia guide. Meanwhile, a company officer has been fined for failing to exercise due diligence to ensure his company complied with its safety duty.