Browsing: Young/inexperienced workers | Page 31

• Two deaths in two days prompts young-worker warning;
  
• PFAS bans take effect in Australian first; and
  
• Workers "repeatedly exposed" to heavy metals.

A second employer has been fined over guarding breaches that led to an Irish backpacker being scalped and losing an ear, while a scaffolding company has been fined heavily after an apprentice sustained debilitating electric-shock injuries in a no-go zone.

An appeals court has rejected a company and its director's "circuitous" and nearly decade-long attempt to withdraw their guilty pleas and quash their safety convictions, after a raft of breaches led to a worker's death in 2005.

In a rare case involving multiple alleged category 3 WHS breaches, a Work for the Dole project co-ordinator and two other entities have been charged in relation to the death of a teenager.

A special advisory committee has been tasked with designing more meaningful leading indicators of WHS performance, and reversing a construction industry culture where principal contractors are perceived as over-focusing on paper-based systems and blaming subcontractors for incidents.

An employer has been convicted and fined $90,000, plus more than $13,700 in costs, after 1760kg of sheet materials fell on a worker, leaving him a quadriplegic. Meanwhile, a site supervisor and a principal contractor have been fined after an apprentice fell four metres.

An employer has been convicted and fined $120,000, plus costs, after using an apprentice to carry out high-risk rigging work because its usual dogman was unavailable, resulting in a beam falling and seriously injuring the young worker.

• Two-month plans and zero targets transform safety culture; and
  
• Safety alerts, guides and initiatives released in five states.

Investing in all the safety programs in the world is futile if your workers don't really believe they can be hurt at work, according to a safety motivational speaker who lost her lower left leg in a conveyor belt incident.

An employer and its director have been fined a total of $880,000, after their departure from acceptable safety standards for handling heavy materials and construction led to the death of an apprentice.