Ahead of Workers' Memorial Day, and in light of the recent stabbing deaths at Westfield Bondi Junction, employers have been urged to ensure they always have clear emergency safety plans in place, and provide workers with access to psychological support services.
An appeals bench has upheld a finding that a worker's failure to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine while she was injured amounted to a breach of her return-to-work duties and warranted her benefits being cut.
More than 70 per cent of the world's workers are exposed to health, safety and mental health risks created by climate change, which extend way beyond excessive heat, the International Labour Organisation has warned.
Employers will be explicitly required to add "critical controls", as defined in international guidelines, to their safety management systems, under legislative amendments aimed at "facilitating the growth in high-reliability organisational (HRO) behaviour" in the resources sector.
Injured workers, and their employers, will be better protected from costly secondary psychological injuries by new provisions requiring insurers to actively provide early intervention services. The provisions are included in a Queensland Bill, which also creates Australia's longest list of cancers presumed, for workers' comp purposes, to be caused by firefighting duties.
Workplace cultures that promulgate the image of "bulletproof" workers that need to be tough to do their jobs can magnify the "insidious" effects of vicarious trauma, a top complex trauma expert says.
Employers will be required to cooperate and communicate with labour-hire providers on suitable employment options for injured workers, under a South Australian Bill that also includes special arrangements for self-insured companies, and enhances benefits for those with dust diseases and terminal illnesses.
Up to half of working parents in Australia are experiencing psychologically harmful workplace discrimination, showing policies delivering inclusivity for those with caring responsibilities are urgently needed, researchers say.