In a $586,000 WHS undertaking, a PCBU has launched a research study into effectively communicating the key "high-risk messages" in safe work method statements, following an incident resulting from SWMS-compliance failures on the first working day of the year in 2018.
In a film produced for toolbox talks and pre-shift meetings, a young worker has explained how his boss disregarded his safety concerns in the moments before they were nearly killed by a powerline. The boss was later fined for safety breaches. Some 1,500km away, regulators have issued warnings after a spate of work-related powerline incidents, including a fatality.
A PCBU has been fine $225,000, after its failure to perform computer modelling to verify hand calculations led to a crane tower collapsing onto a building, exposing three workers to the risk of death.
A PCBU has been fined for failing to report a head knock to a regulator, while a worker who should have refused his employer's request to carry out unsafe work has been fined over a co-worker's injuries, and a man has been penalised for his "disgraceful" asbestos breaches.
A PCBU has committed to completely digitising its permit-to-work system to strengthen its effectiveness as a critical control for non-standard work, while a second PCBU will audit its mobile plant and traffic management plans across multiple sites, in response two serious safety incidents.
A PCBU that supplied harnesses for height work, but unlawfully relied on a subcontractor to provide safety instructions and supervision to workers, has been convicted and fined after the subcontractor "tragically" failed to use the harnesses, resulting in a fatal fall.
