Comcare outlines policy on "accidental non-compliance" in draft; A thousand workers win workers' comp exemption in NSW; SA Greens progress firefighter Bill, call for "serious" anti-bullying laws; WorkCover NSW targeting glass businesses in wake of deaths, injuries; and Q-COMP releases new medical fees.
Employers should be aware of inspectors' powers under the model WHS laws, with workplace health and safety regulators likely to crack down on breaches from the start of next year, according to an employment lawyer.
Black boxes and access to drivers' records key to better truck safety, says ALC; Unions call for compulsory crush-protection devices on quad bikes; Review of Seacare scheme to examine ways to reduce employer premiums; and Alert issued after crane-derailment fatality.
Directors and other company officers have been warned to be wary of insurance companies that purport to provide cover for workplace health and safety penalties.
Commonwealth amendment shortens training for experienced HSRs; Benefits for NSW's seriously injured workers increase by 70% today; and SafeWork SA investigating barge maintenance fatality.
Employers that produce or pay for lengthy documents to cover every possible OHS risk - and forget about their people in the process - are likely to flounder on the "safety plateau", according to a health and safety consultant.
In this article, OHS Alert looks at a discussion paper on engineering controls for quad-bikes, the ACT's plan to establish an industrial court for safety issues, new harmonisation guides from Queensland, a Western Australian workers' comp Bill, and more.
The model WHS Act should be extended to the offshore petroleum industry to ensure HSRs in the sector are properly trained, unions have claimed, after the deaths of two workers on the Stena Clyde gas drilling rig in Bass Strait on Monday morning.
Company officers are obligated - under the model WHS Act - to monitor such "future trends" as the health risks associated with excessive mobile phone use, two OHS law experts say in an analysis of the Act's due diligence requirements.
Labour-law expert Professor Ron McCallum has given the OHS harmonisation process the "thumbs up", but expressed dismay at Victoria's reluctance to adopt the new laws. Also in this article, manufacturing employers and others have been warned they could be captured by the model Act's broad definition of "construction work".
