An employer has been convicted and fined for eight workplace safety breaches, including hindering an investigation by hiding tools after an apprentice was shot in the head by a nail gun. Meanwhile, a major survey has found unsanitary amenities are common at worksites.
A tribunal has asked the Department of Veterans' Affairs to produce guidelines to prevent injured veterans being discriminated against based on their mental health treatment records, in upholding an ex-soldier's post-traumatic stress disorder claim.
An employer that allowed an unlicensed teenage worker to operate a forklift, and then failed to inform a safety regulator that seven of the worker's fingers had been amputated, has been handed a high-level safety penalty.
A worker who injured her back while lifting heavy trays has been awarded nearly $160,000 in damages, after a court found her employer negligently failed to provide proper manual handling training or enforce a 10kg lifting limit.
Synergy Scaffolding Services Pty Ltd has been fined $2 million for reckless conduct that killed an 18-year-old worker, two days after his birthday, and endangered many others, at a NSW site.
In a case providing an important reminder of the extra risks faced by vulnerable workers, like those from overseas, a PCBU has been convicted and fined over the significant fall injuries sustained by the holder of a working holiday visa.
An employer has been fined heavily over a fatality caused by an unsafely modified machine, while a young worker has been charged and fined for failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of his even younger colleague, by throwing a tool at him.
Employers have been reminded of their WHS duty to protect their staff from violence, with more than 50 organisations, including major companies and safety regulators, signing an industry statement supporting the eradication of customer disrespect, abuse and violence from workplaces.
A major employer that exposed a worker to the "obvious" safety risks created by performing excessive hours, while handling knives and heavy objects, has been fined a total of nearly $100,000 for multiple Fair Work contraventions.
A judge has lamented that the height safety message from numerous WHS prosecutions is not getting through to duty holders, in handing a PCBU a pre-discount fine of $825,000 over an incident in which workers were directed to ride in an excavator bucket, before falling four metres.
