Browsing: Work at heights

An employer breached safety laws in failing to ensure a plan to install edge protection around a newly created void was completed before workers were permitted to enter the area, a court has found in fining the company over a fall.

A litany of failures in the way a business approached a high-risk job led to the death of a trainee, a judge has ruled in convicting and fining an individual with the duties of a PCBU $60,000.

A PCBU that allowed a subcontractor to apply a system of work where height workers were forced to unhook their harnesses, to move materials, has been convicted of WHS contraventions.

A WHS regulator has called for members of the public to report any substandard safety practices they witness, and warned that the absence of suitable workplace amenities continues to be a major problem in one industry.

A company that was convicted and fined over an apprentice's severe electric-shock injuries has been blocked from recovering, from its insurer, any damages and compensation paid to the worker, with an appeals court finding its director was "indifferent to whether any action was taken to prevent" the electrical risk.

• Manager with bullying "injury" ordered to repay $100k;
  
• WHS regulator lays fatality charge and issues blade alert; and
  
• NT amends WHS clause on "white cards", reports powerline incidents.

John Holland Pty Ltd has been granted permission to enter a $1.2 million enforceable undertaking in lieu of prosecution over a worker's seven-metre fall through a hole on a major infrastructure project, and will develop a freely available virtual reality app for identifying height risks.

A company director who successfully overturned his fatality-related reckless conduct conviction and jailing has, along with his brother and two businesses, been fined over a similar WHS incident to the one that resulted in the death.

A company director who failed to ensure his organisation provided fall prevention measures to height workers has become the third entity to be fined over a five-metre fall, while a regulator has expressed frustration after yet another employer was fined for forklift-related breaches.

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.