Browsing: WHS Harmonisation (National) | Page 10

In this update, OHS Alert examines the most important workplace safety and workers' comp news from the third quarter of 2014, including Safe Work Australia's controversial decision to dump draft Codes of Practice in favour of guidance packages, and other legislative developments.

Fate of draft WHS Codes unclear; Workers killed in crashes, falls and explosions in June; and Queensland issues fatality, mobile plant and sign alerts.

A safety regulator has been accused, on the two-year anniversary of a double work fatality, of being "too close" to employers, while Safe Work Australia has been accused of siding with big business on the future of a model WHS Code of Practice.

The model WHS Act should be amended to ensure health and safety reps are punished for abusing their powers, but its due diligence provisions should be maintained and broadly applied by employers, according to Ai Group.

Union "abuses" of safety issues would be reduced if each relevant jurisdiction followed Queensland's lead on amending model WHS right-of-entry provisions, according to Master Builders Australia.

Proposed and actual major changes to the harmonised WHS Acts, as well as surprising developments in the non-harmonised states, dominated OHS Alert's pages in the second quarter of 2014. Check out this review of all the most important safety and workers' compensation news from the three months to 30 June.

Stakeholders in the harmonised states and territories are being asked to comment on whether the model WHS laws should be amended to include stricter entry rules and less prescriptive regulations - but they've been given just days to do so.

Nine more draft model WHS Codes of Practice - including those covering scaffolding, forklifts and plant supply - have been dumped in favour of guidance material.

The future of Safe Work Australia as an independent agency appears assured, with Employment Minister Eric Abetz hinting that absorbing it into his Department wouldn't be cost effective.

Senior managers have been sent a health and safety "wake-up call", with the ACT becoming the first jurisdiction to charge an officer under the harmonised WHS laws, following a fatality.