An injured worker has proved that medicinal cannabis is a reasonable treatment his employer should pay for, even though it has not improved his functionality.
Employers that operate heavy vehicles have been "challenged" to review and overhaul their fatigue management systems, after a company's national operations manager was sentenced to three years' jail for recklessness that led to the deaths of four police officers.
A senior company executive has been found guilty of recklessness and faces jail, in the latest case involving the deaths of four police officers in a road incident caused by a drug-affected truck driver.
Sydney Trains has been: ordered to reinstate a worker dismissed for testing positive to cocaine metabolites after returning from leave; and censured for failing to learn from previous criticisms of its approach to enforcing its drug and alcohol policy.
In a case highlighting the remote-work-related WHS duties of employers and workers, the Fair Work Commission has upheld the pay sanction imposed on a teacher who drank from a cask of wine in a video meeting.
Company executives must ensure systems are in place to deal with non-compliance with safety requirements and those systems are properly monitored, a regulator has stressed after an employer was handed a record recklessness fine relating to the deaths of four police officers.
Lawyers have urged companies to keep on top of emerging evidence on the effects of medicinal cannabis on workers and testing regimes, outlining a wide range of challenges in this area. Meanwhile, Victorian stakeholders have just weeks left to contribute to a parliamentary inquiry into workplace drug tests.
A worker who was assaulted and suffered a serious brain injury, while on a winery tour during a "short absence" from his employment, has been denied compensation, with a tribunal rejecting his claims around being encouraged to take leave and consume alcohol.
A commission had upheld the dismissal of a worker who, after being sent home early for fatigue-related issues, attended a music festival and then returned to the workplace behaving erratically.
Workers taking prescription medicinal cannabis for medical conditions are protected by anti-discrimination laws, but critical health and safety matters can sideline those protections, industrial and employment lawyers say.