Browsing: WHS decisions (NSW) | Page 7

An employer charged with WHS breaches after a blast hurled rocks at workers inside an exclusion zone has escaped conviction, with a regulator failing to prove beyond reasonable doubt that appointing a supervisor with less than "optimal" experience was a breach of the employer's duty.

In an extremely rare development, a judge has found the WHS offences of a reckless PCBU and a "worker" deserved the highest available penalties, totalling $3.15 million. They were charged over the grisly death of a man who was dragged into a woodchipper, and whose disappearance went unnoticed because the PCBU's systems were "so haphazard".

PCBUs have been reminded of their WHS duties to children, after one entity was fined over a drowning death and another over a forklift joyride. Meanwhile, the ACT has launched a campaign against workplace violence, and reminded employers of the new WHS duty to report "actual or suspected" incidents of workplace s-xual assault.

A court has ordered two companies to pay more than $1.6 million in damages to a labour-hire worker, who was injured performing a "mundane" task that was unsafe because it "included a tripping hazard as an integral part of its operation".

Relying on the evidence of a WHS expert, a woman who broke her knee at the entry of a supermarket has proved the site negligently failed to enforce its hourly inspection and cleaning systems, but failed to show this breach caused her injury.

Two PCBUs have been handed pre-discount fines totalling $460,000 for their involvement in the death of a delivery driver. One of the PCBUs failed to comply with its consultation duties, which could have been satisfied through a simple email enquiry, a judge ruled.

An employer has defeated WHS charges alleging its safety systems were flawed in a way that allowed unlicensed workers to operate forklifts.

A PCBU that failed to prevent workers from taking contaminated clothing home, or tell a labourer he needed to be clean-shaven when wearing a mask, has been convicted and fined for category-3 WHS breaches.

An employer that was found to have negligently caused a worker to crash his car while driving home from a 12-hour shift has overturned the ruling, with an appeals court finding: there was insufficient evidence to suggest fatigue caused the crash; and the employer had fulfilled its common law duty of care.

A worker who was sacked for engaging in a verbal altercation with railway personnel on his way to work has been reinstated, with a commission finding his actions didn't warrant his dismissal and he didn't pose a safety risk to his colleagues, despite his history of "aggressive outbursts".