Browsing: Young/inexperienced workers | Page 11

A PCBU that was fined $400,000 over an apprentice's death, and unsuccessfully sought to overturn its conviction in the High Court, has been handed a record-long ban from tendering for Commonwealth-funded work.

• Step up safety with increasing demands, say regulators;
  
• Employers urged to utilise WHS tool for young workers; and
  
• Waivers don't reduce WHS duties to children.

A company has been fined after a workplace health and safety inspector observed two of its apprentices performing electrical work on their own. Meanwhile, Western Australia's average workers' comp premium rate has been increased for the second year in a row.

In a case where "parallel" duty holders were charged over a worker's death, a PCBU has been found guilty of breaching WHS laws in relying on training and signage rather than engineering measures to control risks arising from new equipment with an unusual design.

Workers who are children face unique health and safety challenges at work, but their employers' policies and processes are often not age-appropriate and block them from reporting issues or engaging with safety, the director of a children's organisation says.

An employer has been fined for workplace management and control breaches, after a heavy object fell 160 metres from a 58-storey development in the heart of Melbourne. Meanwhile, a regulator has outlined safety control measures for hydraulic equipment, after an apprentice was killed.

A company and its director have been fined a total of $126,000, after their electrical safety contraventions were referred to a WHS prosecutor. Another company was recently fined for similar breaches, after an apprentice was nearly killed.

A company and one of its directors have been fined, and handed a hefty decontamination bill, for embarking on a clean-up exercise that could have exposed hundreds of people to asbestos fibres. Meanwhile, a regulator has issued a warning to PCBUs following a "horror month" of nail gun incidents.

A PCBU's reliance on an expert employee to manage machine hazards, and an unstable chair, created a "trap for inexperienced workers", a court has found in fining it $147,000 over an amputation incident and notification failures.

A worker's failure to reach performance expectations was an important factor in determining the reasonableness of actions taken against her, but her superior's "bad faith" actions potentially made her employer liable for her psychological injury, a tribunal full bench has found.