Browsing: Work at heights | Page 9

• WHS laws around hazardous crane lifts explained; and
  
• Safety enforcement action captures company profits.

A business owner who allegedly recklessly disregarded safety complaints at a work site could be jailed for decades, after being charged with the industrial manslaughter of a worker in a fall. Meanwhile, a regulator has released a workplace fatality toll including deaths from disease and suicide.

A company has been found guilty of safety breaches and fined $400,000, over a high-profile incident where a large bucket of concrete fell from a crane and killed a man working below the suspended load. Another employer has been fined $300,000 after a worker was struck by a forklift.

• Critical safety information not relayed to worker; and
  
• Workplace safety "warrior" among Vic award winners.

A court has warned against undertaking "cursory" safety inspections for height work, in finding a PCBU's WHS breaches, relating to a fatal fall, warranted a $500,000 penalty.

A principal contractor has been convicted and fined over an incident where two workers were injured in a fall from an excavator bucket - an event that has already attracted a high-level WHS penalty and elicited an industry-wide warning from a judge.

A judge has referred one of his WHS rulings to a government minister, to highlight the prevalence of deaths and serious injuries from height work, and possibly inform legislative change.

Labour providers cannot rely on other companies to ensure the health and safety of their workers, a judge has stressed in fining a PCBU over two incidents (including a fatality) that occurred just weeks apart.

Employers could face increasing regulatory scrutiny where workplace fatalities or serious injuries occur, with a union pressuring government ministers to "get serious" about safety prosecutions. Meanwhile, a workplace supervisor has been fined over an induction incident.

• Numerous duty holders fined, common safety breaches revealed; and
  
• World-first WHS guidelines for cobots released in NSW.