It is well known that chemical accidents can expose workers to hazardous irritants, but employers need to be aware that exposure often occurs during everyday "controlled" tasks, a study of 18 years' data on occupational asthmas has shown.
A PCBU has committed to completely digitising its permit-to-work system to strengthen its effectiveness as a critical control for non-standard work, while a second PCBU will audit its mobile plant and traffic management plans across multiple sites, in response two serious safety incidents.
Two workplace duty holders charged with recklessly endangering a client, who died, will be tried by a judge alone without a jury, following an appeals court decision aimed at reducing the backlog of criminal trials caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Injured workers are frequently offered "non-evidence-based" treatments in the weeks following the injury event, significantly increasing the risk of their conditions becoming chronic and prolonging their compensation claims, according to an award-winning exercise physiologist.
The "softly, softly" approach to managing injured and very unwell workers helps them achieve their health and social goals and prepares them to tackle vocational issues, and is particularly effective for those with chronic conditions and costly long-tail claims, a specialist says.
* Business owner fined heavily for COVID breaches; * Employer and director fined over bypassed safety mechanisms; and * Vic opens safety awards, reveals financial results and issues fatality alert.
A tribunal full bench majority has upheld an "intuitive reasoning" finding that a worker's fatal stroke was caused by him turning his head at work, and connected to his employment.
The Federal Government has been urged to use its "deciding vote" to add industrial manslaughter provisions and s-xual harassment controls to the national model WHS laws, while Comcare has released a series of guides on preventing workplace s-xual harassment and implementing early intervention programs for injured workers.
Settling on passive treatments, and failing to empower workers with musculoskeletal injuries with the knowledge of what is causing their pain, are common failings leading to disability and excessive recovery periods, an exercise physiologist specialising in chronic pain says.
