An employer and its director were yesterday handed the highest OHS fines in South Australian history, after the death of a worker at the Adelaide desalination plant. But the director's fine will be paid by his insurance company, and the judge in the case has warned that officers could similarly dodge penalties under the model WHS Act.
Employers in Victoria and South Australia have been fined a total of $420,000 for safety breaches, after one worker was fatally crushed by a falling steel beam, and another sustained serious arm injuries on a machine involved in an earlier breach.
A South Australian police prosecutor, who claims he contracted Hepatitis C in a work incident nearly 25 years ago, has had his workers' comp claim upheld. Also in this article, an employer has been fined for failing to fit a machine with an interlock guard.
A South Australian worker with a reputation for practical jokes has had his unfair dismissal claim rejected, after the IRC found he wrote and sent an inappropriate email from a colleague's email account.
A South Australian supervisor, who was injured while travelling between her home and work in an employer-supplied vehicle, has successfully argued that the journey was "undertaken in the course of carrying out duties".
Safe work procedures developed for machines must specify what workers should do, as well as what they shouldn't, the South Australian Magistrates Court has noted in fining an employer for OHS breaches.
Victorian employers have been put on notice after an unsafe plumber was charged by an inspector who was visiting a supermarket. Also in this article, a South Australian employer that let workers make their own height-safety decisions has been fined nearly $80,000.
Employers must refrain from revoking OHS policies or procedures until they conduct a risk assessment, the South Australian Magistrates Court has stressed, after a worker suffered serious injuries when she was struck by a mechanical arm.
A business owner, who failed to display a written safe work procedure, is one of two South Australian employers who have been fined nearly $40,000 for guarding breaches.
