Browsing: Workplace safety court and tribunal decisions | Page 226

An employer's fatality-related OHS fine should include a component for general deterrence to alert the mining industry to the need to adopt adequate systems for inherently dangerous tasks "at all stages of the operation", the NSW Industrial Court has found.

A NSW employer has been fined $67,000 after two employees, whose supervisors were in a management meeting, mixed incompatible dangerous goods and created a toxic gas that led to seven workers, including themselves, being hospitalised.

The recent imprisonment of a South Australian company owner over the death of a worker is just one example of Australia's move towards adopting the global trend of holding individuals accountable for safety breaches, says Sparke Helmore Lawyers partner Luke Holland.

The Federal Court has rejected a union's bid to take photos of suspected safety contraventions at a workplace, in an ongoing dispute about entry laws and the meaning of "premises".

• Open window results in $120k safety fine;
  
• Employers fined over fatalities, burns and crush injuries; and
  
• Employer fined for two height-safety breaches after one fall.

An employer has been ordered to donate $120,000 to an environment trust after fumes escaped from an unattended tank and caused 15 workers from a neighbouring business to go home sick with headaches and nausea.

An employer had been entitled to rely on an experienced subcontractor to perform a lifting task safely, a court of appeal has found in stripping the injured subcontractor of more than $820,000 in damages.

• Six "hidden" sources of asbestos exposure; and
  
• Worker fined for crane-safety breach.

An employer has been fined less than three per cent of the maximum WHS penalty for a finger amputation, after a judge found it sought to improve safety through a "legislative compliance audit" before the incident, and had since taken significant steps to eliminate risks.

A worker has been denied damages for an injury caused by kneeling down to access a power point, after a court rejected her claim her employer was negligent in failing to ensure all equipment was within reach.