Browsing: WHS decisions (NSW) | Page 13

Future uncertainty over his job prospects, and the fact he would likely have to retrain for a different career, has attracted a $350,000 "buffer" payment in a damages award to a trainee engineer, who was injured in a South32 mine collapse attributed to his employer's negligence.

A Federal judge has concluded that undertaking a rehabilitation program is not "work" as prescribed by WHS laws - a finding that precludes a worker from making an adverse action claim over her dismissal.

A judge has highlighted the concurrent WHS duties of PCBUs in fining a company for multiple contraventions, after a 700-kilogram load fell from a tower crane onto a poorly barricaded footpath and struck a worker, causing serious lifelong injuries.

An individual operating as a PCBU, who was found guilty of multiple WHS contraventions relating to a crane and powerlines incident that seriously injured two workers, has been fined just $15,000, despite facing a maximum total penalty of $600,000.

A PCBU that failed to properly supervise its workers has been fined $300,000, after an unqualified labourer, who had been allocated groundwork, fell to his death from a height of nearly three metres.

A PCBU has been fined $375,000 after an 18-year-old apprentice, with just days of experience, was left unsupervised in a workshop and killed while working on a truck.

A PCBU fined $170,000 for endangering "other persons", by allowing an unqualified labour-hire worker to perform high-risk cranage work, has lost its appeal against its conviction, with a bench rejecting is claim the task was outside the scope of its undertaking.

A PCBU has been fined a total of $100,000, in the Federal Court, for unduly delaying and physically blocking WHS permit holders from entering a worksite to investigate suspected safety contraventions, including after the site was evacuated because of hazardous fumes.

An employer has failed to overturn a $1.4 million injury damages award and a ruling that it negligently disregarded a worker's advice to hire a more suitable assistant for him.

A PCBU has been fined $360,000 for failing to enforce its daily safety checklists, which led to a leak in a trailer's hydraulic system being overlooked, and a worker being killed.