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.
Future uncertainty over his job prospects, and the fact he would likely have to retrain for a different career, has attracted a $350,000 "buffer" payment in a damages award to a trainee engineer, who was injured in a South32 mine collapse attributed to his employer's negligence.
An individual operating as a PCBU, who was found guilty of multiple WHS contraventions relating to a crane and powerlines incident that seriously injured two workers, has been fined just $15,000, despite facing a maximum total penalty of $600,000.
UK researchers have emphasised the need for protective wellbeing strategies for remote workers, after finding working from home increases the likelihood of engaging in unhealthy alcohol and tobacco consumption, and physical health and mental wellbeing deteriorating, particularity in younger people.
A PCBU that failed to properly supervise its workers has been fined $300,000, after an unqualified labourer, who had been allocated groundwork, fell to his death from a height of nearly three metres.
A PCBU has been fined $375,000 after an 18-year-old apprentice, with just days of experience, was left unsupervised in a workshop and killed while working on a truck.
An employer has failed to overturn a $1.4 million injury damages award and a ruling that it negligently disregarded a worker's advice to hire a more suitable assistant for him.
