An employer has been ordered to pay nearly $110,000 in fines and costs after one worker was injured by an improvised vehicle attachment, and another fell in a drain. Meanwhile, a packaging business has been fined for maintenance breaches after an employee was killed.
The dispute over union powers to enter sites to assist HSRs appears to be far from over, with a safety regulator "considering its options" in relation to the full Federal Court's Friday decision on the matter.
A full Federal Court has quashed an earlier ruling that union officials don't need entry permits to enter workplaces to assist elected health and safety representatives.
A worker has been granted permission to sue her employer for her bullying-related psychological disorder, despite numerous stressful events in her personal life contributing to her condition. Meanwhile, an employer has failed to convince a commission that previous investigations showed a worker's anti-bullying application was vexatious.
An employer charged with discriminating against workers for raising an OHS issue has failed to convince a superior court that the Crown must prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the workers raised the issue on "reasonable grounds" and believed the threats made against them would be carried out.
A worker whose pregnancy went undiagnosed after six workplace medical examinations has been given the green light to sue the Commonwealth for damages, with an appeals court ruling that her claim isn't blocked by workers' comp laws.
An employer has been fined for failing to instruct personnel on the risks associated with a maintenance task, after a worker sustained head injuries, while a man who was bitten by a red back spider at work has been convicted for over-claiming nearly $15,000 in treatment travel costs.
An injured worker has been granted permission, on appeal, to sue a ladder manufacturer, which owned the company that engaged him to perform height work.
An employer has been fined for failing to ensure a safe work method statement addressed a fatality-causing task - the performance of which was "at the outer level of foreseeability" by the employer.
An employer that previously claimed it should have been charged under road rules - with low maximum fines - instead of OHS laws after a fatality, has unsuccessfully argued that its OHS charges are invalid in failing to outline the "necessity" of providing safety instructions to workers.
