Browsing: WHS decisions (VIC) | Page 2

A workplace supervisor has been sentenced for recklessly allowing a drug-affected truck driver to drive and kill four police officers, but cleared of allegations he would have known the driver was in an unfit state just by looking at him. He was originally charged with four counts of manslaughter.

An employer has pleaded guilty to 16 safety breaches and been hit with $545,000 in fines, including over fire safety failures that led to staff using a flammable liquid and cardboard instead of a fire extinguisher to put out a fire on a machine and on two workers.

A company director who bullied a subcontractor for four years, and abused him for raising safety concerns to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been convicted of workplace health and safety contraventions.

The fine imposed on an employer that failed to fully implement a mandatory safety measure, because it ran out of the required materials, has been increased more than five-fold on appeal, with a judge stressing penalties must be significant enough to dissuade others from "cutting corners".

A company has been convicted and fined $1.3 million in Victoria's first finalised workplace manslaughter case. Its director was also charged with manslaughter, but pleaded guilty to a less serious offence.

• Missing signage and access issues among multiple chemical breaches; and
  
• Draft safety laws include mandatory jail for most offenders.

A worker has been convicted of safety breaches that caused a colleague to become crushed between two vehicles and sustain life-threatening injuries, with a court finding he should have been aware of the danger his co-worker was in.

A company director has been convicted and fined for a string of "disturbing" acts of bullying against two apprentices, including at a work Christmas party. A court found his company's safety failings were solely attributable to him.

A senior company executive has been found guilty of recklessness and faces jail, in the latest case involving the deaths of four police officers in a road incident caused by a drug-affected truck driver.

Employers have been urged to identify all powerlines at their workplaces, including around entry and exit points, after a company was convicted and fined over an electrocution. Employers have also been warned about the presence of asbestos in workplace fire doors, following exposure incidents.