Browsing: Work at heights | Page 49

A subcontractor has failed to convince a court that it had been entitled to rely on a principal contractor and expert companies to assess and control the risks of a hazardous stairway.

A major employer has entered into a $677,000 WHS undertaking to cover a regulator's costs and educate the "next generation" of high-risk-industry workers, after a worker sustained serious injuries falling from a retractable ladder.

An employer has been convicted and fined $90,000, plus more than $13,700 in costs, after 1760kg of sheet materials fell on a worker, leaving him a quadriplegic. Meanwhile, a site supervisor and a principal contractor have been fined after an apprentice fell four metres.

Employers have been warned of a new zero-tolerance approach to unsafe scaffolding, after a major audit identified widespread non-compliance with scaffolding standards, and a number of serious safety breaches, like missing key structural components.

• Repeat OHS offender fined for corroded walkway; and
  
• Worker wins $60k for pre-maternity-leave redundancy.

• New on-the-spot WHS fines introduced in NSW;
  
• WHS competency scheme requirements gazetted; and
  
• Hadgkiss fined over false right-of-entry information.

A worker who failed to alert his supervisor to unsafe working conditions, before slipping and falling two metres, has been found contributorily negligent in his damages case against three companies.

An employer has been convicted and fined $120,000, plus costs, after using an apprentice to carry out high-risk rigging work because its usual dogman was unavailable, resulting in a beam falling and seriously injuring the young worker.

• Two-month plans and zero targets transform safety culture; and
  
• Safety alerts, guides and initiatives released in five states.

• Officer and company fined $175k after fall;
  
• New safety regulator imminent with $25m promise; and
  
• Government launches national review of increasing road trauma rates.