The safety standards during the construction of Brisbane's Airport Link tunnel have been declared "deplorable", with one worker being killed, the joint-venture partners facing OHS prosecutions, one partner and another employer entering enforceable undertakings after other workers were injured, and 70 notices being issued by a regulator.
A worker who was repeatedly s-xually harassed by her manager, before being sacked for complaining about it and suffering a psychiatric illness, has been awarded $100,000 in damages.
A safety-incident interview that "transformed itself" into a disciplinary meeting was not a reasonable platform for sacking a worker who allegedly breached nine safety rules, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A worker has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission that his positive drug test was "exacerbated" by the surge of adrenalin he experienced while fighting a fire on a front-end loader.
BHP Billiton was right to sack three workers for lying during an investigation into safety breaches, the Fair Work Commission has found in rejecting the workers' unfair dismissal claims.
An employer that sacked a worker with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, who refused to undertake a competency assessment because he was ill, has been ordered to pay him $100,000 in fines and compensation.
The recent Federal Court decision involving a Visy HSR should remind employers that courts will "always" impose hefty deterrence penalties in safety-related adverse action cases, an OHS lawyer says.
An employer unfairly sacked a train driver for allegedly breaching the new national rail safety laws, after he failed a drug and alcohol test when he attended work for a meeting, the Fair Work Commission has found.
