Employers in the road transport sector could be required to inspect vehicle brake pads weekly, under one of 25 recommendations made by a coronial investigation into Victoria's Kerang train disaster and other level-crossing fatalities.
Employers can improve safety either by reducing heavy workloads, or ensuring workers with high job demands have the right experience and skills to manage them, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has suggested in a report on an aviation near-miss.
The provision of simple information booklets can help mitigate the health risks associated with FIFO work, such as sleep and weight problems, Australian researchers say.
The road freight transport sector is notorious for its high worker fatality rate, but its average claims costs and time lost to injuries - such as sprains and contusions - are also consistently higher than all other industries, a new Safe Work Australia report shows.
Safety inspectors in the ACT visited more than 2000 workplaces and issued hundreds of improvement and prohibition notices in 2012-13, significantly increasing their presence in some sectors, a new report shows.
BHP Billiton claims in its 2013 sustainability report, released today, that it can partly attribute a reduction in workers' exposure to carcinogens and airborne contaminants to establishing its own occupational exposure limits when regulatory limits are inadequate.
New workers' comp laws to benefit Victorian employers; Greens vow to continue fight for presumptive workers' comp laws; and Quad bike deaths and injuries increasing in Victoria.
Employers get more value from their health and safety reps if they consult them on "big ticket items", such as the development of safety management systems, rather than leaving such decisions entirely up to senior managers, the Comcare National Conference in Canberra has heard.
