A raft of OHS and workers' compensation legislation has been introduced throughout Australia in recent months. Check this roundup to ensure you didn't miss anything.
The NSW IRC in Court Session has ruled that it was not enough for the director of a labour hire company to put in place a comprehensive OHS policy - he also had to personally ensure that his staff and managers had the skills required to enforce it.
A Victorian employer that failed to report a safety incident or inform its employees of new work procedures has been fined and convicted over a subsequent, similar incident.
A worker who delayed pursuing a claim for weekly compensation until after he reached retirement age has been refused the opportunity to proceed with it, despite a SA judge accepting it would be likely to succeed.
A psychiatric clinic that had an advanced duress alarm system but didn't train staff to use it has been fined $74,750, after a nurse was violently attacked by a patient.
The NSW IRC in Court Session has found that a worker's direct employer was more culpable for an OHS incident than the site controller, and imposed fines totalling $227,000 on the companies.
Two recent Victorian OHS prosecutions show the importance of ensuring that safety policies are adhered to, and of having in place good traffic management practices in warehouses.
The simplicity with which an employer devised and implemented a safety solution after a fatal incident demonstrated why the charge against it shouldn't have been dismissed, the Industrial Court of Queensland has ruled.
Two Private Member Bills introduced to SA's Parliament in the last week provide for a new offence of industrial manslaughter in the State's OHS&W Act, and for workers with asbestos diseases to seek compensation from James Hardie directors.
