An employer has been ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in WHS fines and costs, after two workers transferring highly volatile chemicals were injured in an explosion. Meanwhile, another employer has been convicted and fined after a lapse in supervision led to a void cover being removed.
A judge has rejected a company owner's claim that had he not been at a funeral, he would have prevented an unqualified employee from working at height, after finding that similar unsafe height work had been performed at the site for 30 years.
In a rare case involving multiple alleged category 3 WHS breaches, a Work for the Dole project co-ordinator and two other entities have been charged in relation to the death of a teenager.
New industrial manslaughter laws that could be adopted nationally are clearly intended to cover a broader range of people than the WHS Act's due diligence obligations, and breaches will be far easier to prove than category 1 offences, according to safety and employment lawyer Katherine Morris.
An operating plant manager has been fined, in an appeals court, for failing to develop a compliant safety management plan (SMP), despite the court accepting his claim that his employer excluded him from the process.
Basic and brief mental health training programs for managers can dramatically reduce the sickness absence rates of their teams, Australian researchers have found.
An award-winning employer has improved safety, and reduced insurance premiums by $600,000, by dumping most lag indicators and encouraging safety leadership through a unique set of leading indicators, according to its health and safety coordinator.
In a world-first study, Australian researchers have identified an association between suicide ideation, attempts and death, and the psychosocial job stressors that more than one in five Australian workers are exposed to.
