Browsing: Workplace safety | Page 3

• Electric-shock notification duties clarified; and
  
• New permanent impairment guidelines made for new WA Act.

An employer has been convicted and fined after a worker's leg was crushed by moving equipment with an alarm he couldn't hear over other noise and through his hearing protection. The employer had assessed such an incident as "almost certain" to occur, but didn't take any steps to prevent it.

• WHS consultation urged after $300k violence fine; and
  
• WHS reviews demanded after two deaths in two hours.

An employer that allegedly breached safety laws and regulations by failing to erect speed limit signs for forklifts, or ensure employed spotters were actually used, has committed nearly $500,000 to safety undertakings to avoid prosecution, with its enforceable initiatives including hiring a workplace health and safety manager.

• Emerging WHS risks targeted for world safety day;
  
• WHS clauses for stone ban clarified; and
  
• Passage of WA safety Bill ensures national consistency.

A workplace manager did not bully a worker, but their employer dealt with the worker's grievances "clumsily", allowing misconstrued interactions to build up to a point where the mental health of both employees was affected, a commission has found.

• Double-fatality fines too low to deter safety breaches, says union; and
  
• Department of Defence charged over psychosocial risks.

A sacked worker has unsuccessfully claimed her employer breached safety laws by failing to conduct a risk assessment for a COVID-19 vaccine rule, and that her role wasn't covered by a government vaccine mandate.

Two organisations have been charged with exposing non-workers to health and safety risks, after an inquest found their "failures and shortcomings" contributed to a boy's death, and slammed one of them for attempting to deflect blame by claiming others led it "into a state of ignorance" on the relevant safety risks.

A quick coaching program can show supervisors how often they unnecessarily interrupt their staff, to the detriment of staff members' health, and help them "redesign" working arrangements, according to Swiss researchers.