A WHS regulator has promised to respond to all workplace health and safety incidents with "firm enforcement and compliance actions", after a PCBU pleaded guilty to a fatality-related contravention. Another regulator has issued a carbon monoxide warning, following a recent death and in light of heavy rains.
Employers that voluntarily fit their vehicles with autonomous early braking systems and other safety technologies could be designated as preferred contractors for government work, under a recommendation from an inquest into a child's death in a road accident.
A judge has discussed the interaction of the WHS duties of companies and the specialist skills of their subcontractors, in sentencing one of nine entities charged with serious safety offences, including manslaughter and reckless conduct, after a pedestrian worker was killed by a crane.
An appeals court has upheld a multimillion-dollar damages ruling (with minor variations), confirming a contractor was vicariously liable for a technician's negligent act that caused four workers to sustain injuries in a jolting lift.
A Commonwealth agency has been acquitted of WHS charges, on appeal, relating to the hypothermia death of a contract helicopter pilot. A court found a key measure the agency was accused of failing to implement was not reasonably practicable.
An employer's failure to address the obvious risks posed by its "incredibly cluttered" warehouse set off a "catastrophic" sequence of events, and has led to a $5.6 million damages award to an injured worker.
After years of "almost farcical" proceedings, a judge has set a date for determining a worker's claim he was relentlessly bullied and tormented at his Canberra workplace, which was the subject of a major WHS probe and scathing findings.
An employer has been ordered to pay $120,000 in damages to an office worker who was injured while running to answer the phone, in a case highlighting the risks posed by systems requiring staff to rush.
A worker with serious strain and lifting injuries has been awarded $1.3 million in damages, with a court finding his employer, a major joint-venture company, could have prevented the risks through simple precautions, including one involving a $400 spend.
A business owner has been handed a $532,000 injury damages bill, after a superior court found he was vicariously liable for an inexperienced worker incorrectly manipulating a crane's controls and knocking over a colleague.
