Browsing: WHS decisions (NSW) | Page 47

A reasonable worker cannot be expected to know that a walkway is wet and slippery without specific signs alerting to the risk, even when it is obvious cleaning is underway, an appeal court has ruled in an indemnity dispute.

An employer that relied on a "specialised expert" contractor to ensure site safety has been convicted and fined $120,000, after a worker fell six metres, while the "more culpable" contractor has escaped conviction, entering an enforceable undertaking instead.

An employer whose poorly-written policy for exclusion zones was "apt to mislead the ordinary reader", has been found guilty of WHS offences, after a worker was seriously injured in a forklift incident.

An employer that had extensive safety systems, but failed to adopt two processes that could have prevented a worker from being fatally crushed by falling cargo, has been fined $150,000.

An employer has been convicted and fined $240,000 over a work experience student's permanent eye injuries, after the NSW Attorney-General appealed against its "non-existent" sentence.

An employer has been acquitted of work health and safety breaches, after a court found it was charged under the wrong subsection of the WHS Act.

An employer could not have foreseen that a worker was at risk of being injured while using equipment designed, installed and maintained by a competent manufacturer, an appeal court has found.

Two related companies and their director have been ordered to pay an estimated $890,000 in fines and costs for dumping asbestos and lead-contaminated waste on an unlawful site owned by one of the companies.

A compliance program for repeat safety offenders will focus on whether leaders in convicted South Australian businesses are meeting their due diligence obligations under section 27 of the Work Health and Safety Act.

Essential Energy has been fined $300,000 after a worker was electrocuted, while an individual has been fined $160,000 for WHS breaches after a worker was killed operating a vehicle without a protective device deployed.