Browsing: Work at heights | Page 4

A PCBU that delegated its duty to enforce safety measures to a contractor, despited hearing that the circumstances at the relevant job site were a "nightmare", has been fined $300,000 over a worker's seven-metre fall.

A company that was prosecuted, over a high-profile fatality, for breaching its safety duties as a supplier of plant, has unsuccessfully argued that its $400,000 penalty was excessive because it had no control over the location of workers when the incident occurred.

A major energy company that failed to implement an adequate visual inspection regime for power poles, and a business that failed to manage asphyxia risks, have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 over fatalities. Meanwhile, duty holders have been urged to assess the risk of heat-related illnesses, after an outdoor worker died in hot weather.

• WHS prosecutions promised, other initiatives having little impact;
  
• Fatigue and remote-work alerts issued after fatalities, violence; and
  
• WHS consultation and s-x work Codes amended and made in ACT.

A PCBU has failed to overturn its fatality-related WHS conviction in an appeals court, in a case demonstrating the key role that updating safety documents to reflect new practices plays in preventing incidents.

• Fabricator and designer both charged over Curtin fatality; and
  
• Boland announced as Safe Work Australia CEO.

A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount fine of $400,000 for failing to provide an apprentice, who fell four metres at the home of the PCBU's director, with adequate supervision, a fall protection system, or any working at heights training.

Assigning "human supervisors" for drones will mitigate some of the emerging safety risks associated with the increasing use of the aerial vehicles in workplace settings, according to Europe's peak safety agency.

• Company charged with endangering customers, after fatality;
  
• Inspectors issue hundreds of WHS notices in three-day blitz; and
  
• WHS resources for new audiometric duties in NSW released.

An employer's commitment to spending nearly $1 million on safety undertakings, including piloting a drone program to eliminate fall-from-height risks, is the "preferred enforcement option" over a worker's four-metre fall, a regulator has revealed.