Browsing: Workplace safety court and tribunal decisions | Page 202

An employer that failed to conduct daily checks of a hoist's safety mechanisms, as recommended by the manufacturer's manual, has been convicted over a worker's death. Meanwhile, a business has been fined for traffic management breaches after a forklift incident.

Working in an environment where "robust language" is commonplace does not excuse acts or threats of violence, a commission has ruled in upholding the sacking of a supervisor who threatened to knock out a colleague.

An employer's WHS fine for a workplace death has been slashed by more than 50 per cent, after it agreed to publish details of the offence in newspapers.

A major employer that took adverse action against an injured worker, before demonstrating a "disturbing level of recalcitrance" in a string of proceedings on the matter, has been fined and ordered to compensate the worker.

A company director, who decided to proceed with height work after a shipment of safety rails didn't turn up, has been convicted of WHS breaches. Meanwhile, a regulator has warned of the risks of unloading pipes from trailers, after two serious incidents.

A worker has been awarded more than $450,000 in damages, in another PTSD case involving an assault by a client with a well-known history of violence.

Two employers have been fined a total of $525,000, after a labour-hire worker was allowed to stand in what should have been an exclusion zone, before being fatally struck by a one-tonne falling object.

The Fair Work Commission has upheld the dismissal of a worker who tested positive for cannabis after a forklift accident, finding he "recklessly" consumed the substance just before starting a shift and not outside the employer's recommended "window of detection", as he contended.

The High Court has found that a jury should have been allowed to hear and consider an injured worker's claim that her employer breached OHS regulations on hazardous manual tasks.

An employer breached its duty of care in failing to prevent a worker, who was on call 24 hours a day, from working up to 70 hours a week and developing a psychiatric injury, the Victorian Supreme Court has found.