Browsing: Violence | Page 26

Following the recent launch of a national inquiry into workplace s-xual harassment in Australia, a UK parliamentary inquiry has expressed deep concerns over the failure of OHS regulators and employers to treat harassment as a serious health and safety issue.

A worker sacked for endangering colleagues by throwing a glass at a work Christmas party has failed to convince a commission that his employer was partly responsible for his misconduct because it supplied the alcohol that made him drunk.

An employer could have complied with its duty of care to an assaulted worker, and avoided a $600,000 injury damages bill, by simply separating the worker and his assailant after being warned of the "ticking time bomb" situation, a court has found.

In a decision examining when employers are vicariously liable for the wrongful acts of their workers, a court has denied a woman damages for injuries from being assaulted during a store robbery, where one of the perpetrators was a store employee.

Workers who are bullied or abused in the workplace are more likely to act aggressively towards others, and employers can take some simple training steps to break the cycle, leading organisational psychologists say.

• Extended WHS powers recommended in Grenfell review;
  
• Jail time guaranteed under anti-violence changes; and
  
• Second employer fined over severe no-go-zone injuries.

A sacked worker has unsuccessfully argued that failing a workplace alcohol test was mitigated by his lack of direct duties on that day. Meanwhile, a judge has upheld the dismissal of a supervisor who tried to scare a subordinate through a Facebook post.

In a decision driving home the importance of prescribing workplace behavioural norms, a commission has upheld the dismissal of two workers who isolated and ostracised a contractor's employees, including one who later attempted suicide.

NSW has revealed its preferred model for accelerating the resolution of workers' comp disputes, and issued orders for monitoring coal workers' health. Meanwhile, South Australia and Tasmania have taken steps to protect bus drivers and police from violence.

The High Court has rejected another special leave application involving a work-related psychiatric injury in Queensland, with an employer being the losing party on this occasion.