Browsing: WHS decisions (VIC) | Page 49

The $475,000 fine imposed on building company Hansen Yuncken Pty Ltd last week, after the death of a worker in a boom lift incident, is just one of eight OHS penalties handed to Victorian entities recently.

A law firm that advised an injured nurse against suing her employer for loss of earnings - after she was told to "duck" when dealing with a violent patient, and subsequently kicked in the neck - has been ordered to pay her $372,000 in damages.

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.

Employer "forced" RTW plan on injured worker, then unfairly sacked him; Miners warned after more than 250 near misses; Victorian employer fined for interlock breach after amputation; and New NTC boss appointed.

A Victorian worker who was subjected to passive smoking at work in the 1980s, and diagnosed with emphysema in 2010, has been given the green light by the Court of Appeal to sue her former employer.

Visy Packaging Pty Ltd took adverse action against an HSR because he exercised his workplace right to "tag" two defective forklifts - less than two months after it urged employees to adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to unsafe practices, the Federal Court has found.

In a long-running dispute between a Victorian law firm and a former partner, the Court of Appeal has found the partner - who made 23 bullying and harassment complaints during her employment - isn't entitled to damages.

An employer that used a "buddy system" to train inexperienced workers is just one of six Victorian companies recently fined for safety breaches. Also in this article, OHS regulators have issued safety alerts on the prevention of illness and injuries from formaldehyde, falls and falling objects.

The State of Victoria has been ordered to pay $250,000 in damages to a police officer who sustained a psychological injury and tried to commit suicide after being bullied by a supervisor. The Court of Appeal rejected the State's claim that the officer had been contributorily negligent in failing to make a complaint about the bullying.

OHS regulators and police in NSW, Queensland and Victoria are investigating a construction death, two fatalities involving quad bikes, a mining incident that left a man a quadriplegic, and a manufacturing incident that left a woman with serious crush injuries.