The Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation has been handed a $300,000 OHS fine for failing to take special steps to protect prison staff in the lead up to a major riot. Another Victorian employer has been fined $60,000 (including costs) after scaffold parts fell from a crane and crashed through the roof of a Porsche dealership.
An employer failed to implement procedures that would have mitigated the injury risks created by another party's negligence, and is 35 per cent liable for an employee's $2 million damages award, a superior court has found.
A worker who injured her ankle in a two-centimetre-deep puddle on a path has been awarded $275,000 in damages, after a court rejected her host employer's claim that the puddle didn't pose a greater risk than those reasonably encountered in the course of everyday life.
Two major employers that claimed the activities that led to a worker's death were governed by road safety laws, with maximum fines of just $7300, have been convicted of OHS breaches and fined a total of $1.55 million over the fatality.
The High Court has upheld a ruling on the interaction of health and safety representatives and Federal right-of-entry laws, refusing permission to WorkSafe Victoria and a union official to challenge the full Federal Court judgment.
An employer that failed to consider whether the use of attachments could affect a forklift's lifting capacity has been ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in fines and costs, after the vehicle tipped over and trapped two workers.
A company charged with 10 OHS breaches relating to the 45-day Hazelwood mine fire has convinced a superior court that it would not get a fair trial in the communities most affected by the disaster.
A "cursory inspection" of a workplace garden bed, where workers regularly scaled a fence to access the site, would have revealed the inadequately covered pit that a worker fell into, an appeals court has found in upholding the man's $570,000 damages award.
