Browsing: WHS legislation, regulations, standards and codes (National) | Page 8

The workplace health and safety standards required of companies tendering for Commonwealth-funded building work could be extended to other procurement areas, under the Federal Government's plan to transfer many of the Australian Building and Construction Commission's powers to WHS regulators.

Employers will soon be required to proactively take steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and adopt new procedures for managing psychosocial risks, under new legislation committed to by the Federal Labor Government.

The national model Work Health and Safety Act, Regulations and related materials have been amended to reflect a wide range of recommendations from Marie Boland's independent review of the laws. Some states have already adopted some of the changes, while other jurisdictions are likely to follow suit soon.

Companies and officers accused of WHS breaches could bear the onus of proving they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent an incident occurring, while the offence of industrial manslaughter will be added to the national model WHS Act, with Labor taking power in the Federal election on the weekend.

The "encompassment" of high-risk work licences under the national model WHS Regulations can lead to situations where hazardous tasks are performed by workers without the necessary training, a special paper on crane licensing has revealed.

• Council fined over notifiable-incident error; and
  
• Asbestos safety and SRC rules amended by legislative instruments.

• New harassment laws drive safety changes by ABCC;
  
• New WHS Code covers forest fires and fatigue in Tas; and
  
• WHS awards open in WA, with new category.

A new consultation paper examining six legislative reforms, proposed by Kate Jenkins, has included an important reminder to employers of their WHS duty to prevent and address "intimidating, hostile, humiliating or offensive" work environments.

Parliamentarians will have an explicit duty to exercise due diligence to ensure their workplaces comply with their WHS obligations, under new laws.

• National Cabinet endorses system "silent on" on fatigue and safety; and
  
• Inaugural WHS Prosecutor resigns.