The High Court has quashed a ruling that a company is vicariously liable for the injury-causing act of an intoxicated employee urinating on a sleeping colleague in an accomodation facility.
Employers have been reminded of two WHS prosecutions over a heat-stroke death, and of the need to conduct frequent weather-related risk assessments, with temperatures soaring in parts of Australia this week.
A 92-year-old Italian who lives on a Mediterranean island, and claims his dust disease resulted from a working holiday in Australia 70 years ago, is a "worker" within the meaning of Queensland's injury laws, a commission has ruled.
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.
A PCBU has been convicted and fined $400,000, after an investigation into an amputation incident revealed a series of safety failings, including that an induction video did not show a task as it was performed in practice.
A tribunal has rejected a submission likening a worker's injuries from being run over in a work car park to an aneurism that happens to occur at work, but is not connected to employment in any meaningful way.
A European holiday worker, whose heat stroke death in Queensland resulted in two WHS prosecutions, was neither acclimatised to the area nor provided with adequate opportunities to escape from the sun, a coroner has found.
A PCBU will translate a range of WHS materials to prevent communication breakdowns and risks among non-English-speaking workers, and contribute $50,000 to a regulatory campaign, after it was accused of WHS breaches resulting in glass falling on a public street.
A second PCBU has been fined over the heat stress death of a worker, with a court finding it breached its duties as the entity in control of the workplace by failing to provide suitable rest areas or shade.