An engineer who was required to attend a work-related dinner - where alcoholic drinks were served - and failed a urine test the following morning was rightly dismissed, Fair Work Australia has ruled.
Safe Work Australia chair Tom Phillips has hit back at claims the draft model Work Health and Safety Regulations are too complex and long, saying employers are only required to be up to speed on provisions that are relevant to their business.
In a horrific case that illustrates the "grave risk" of conducting hot work near a fuel source, a NSW employer has been fined $200,000 after a worker surrounded by flames jumped nine metres to his death.
In this update, OHS Alert outlines all the important OHS and workers' compensation legislative changes made in the first quarter of 2011. We also recap the most significant court and tribunal rulings and other developments in each jurisdiction.
In a case that highlights the risk of giving inappropriate instructions to subcontractors, a NSW employer that directed a non-employee to work in a "no go zone" has been fined $180,000, after he was killed by a moving vehicle.
A Victorian employer could have eliminated a host of "self-evident" manual handling risks through the introduction of cheap and convenient alternative processes, the Supreme Court has found in awarding an injured worker nearly $1.4 million in damages.
Changes to company safety policies must be "clearly and openly communicated" to all employees before they can take effect, Fair Work Australia has ruled, in reinstating a speeding worker who was dismissed under a policy he denied knowledge of.
