In a case that highlights the risk of giving inappropriate instructions to subcontractors, a NSW employer that directed a non-employee to work in a "no go zone" has been fined $180,000, after he was killed by a moving vehicle.
A NSW principal contractor that failed to secure a site has been fined $250,000, following a horror incident in which a man walking his dog fell headfirst into a two-metre-deep pier hole and died of asphyxiation.
The TWU has failed to convince a NSW court that saliva swabs are more appropriate than urine samples for testing drivers for drug and alcohol impairment.
A new decision from the NSW Industrial Court should ring alarm bells for directors of all companies, regardless of how remote they are from day-to-day work practices. The Court, in finding that the CEO of a large multi-national company was guilty of an OHS offence, also criticised the common reliance by directors on "alternative" defences to their charges.