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An employer's ban on workers remaining at remote client sites or using company vehicles during dispute-related work stoppages did not endanger their safety, a commission has found.

Western Australia recently adopted Australia's second highest maximum work safety fines, but a major employer has been fined just $65,000 over a preventable fatality, with the State's former, notoriously lenient penalty regime continuing to apply to offences committed prior to October this year.

A major employer that developed a new safety strategy in collaboration with contractors has reduced its total recordable injury frequency rate by 75 per cent, and won a national safety leadership award.

A coroner has warned that industrial manslaughter laws will increase "defensive litigious strategies", but recommended a review that could shift the focus of WHS management from risk assessment to mandatory rules.

In an important safety study for all employers with vehicles on public roads, researchers have found that even highly experienced professional drivers experience a significant deterioration in overall driving performance while using mobile phones.

A court has rejected a worker's claim that his employer took adverse action against him by sacking him after he took sick leave, after the employer was able to demonstrate his illness "played no part" in the dismissal.

A PCBU over-relied on a worker's extensive experience and failed to realise that his high-risk tasks went beyond the scope of his qualifications and licensing, a court has found in fining the PCBU.

• Unsafe employers and supervisor fined;
  
• National risk standard and Vic safety regulations commence; and
  
• New laws underpin ACT's workers' comp self-insurance licence.

An Australian study on musculoskeletal disorders has highlighted the need to educate young workers on correct working postures, including how to manage their "postural variations" with different workstations.

A worker has been awarded nearly $2 million in damages, after a court found his employer negligently allowed a defective alarm to be left unattended in an office, resulting in him sustaining whiplash injuries when it was accidentally activated.