New WHS and workers' comp standards have commenced or been postponed in three jurisdictions, while two jurisdictions have issued confined space alerts after three deaths and an electric shock.
Work safety authorities have issued special heat warnings to employers, which are particularly important to heed given the Bureau of Meteorology's latest annual climate statement and three-month forecast.
OHS Alert is taking a break for the Christmas and New Year period, and we're leaving you with a list of some of the most popular of our 800 articles from the last 12 months.
A company director has successfully argued his safety breaches didn't warrant the near-record fine imposed on him, with an appeals court finding he had been negligent rather than reckless. Meanwhile, a number of employers have been charged and entered undertakings after a child was killed and a young trainee fell six metres.
In sentencing a PCBU for multiple breaches of WHS regulations, a judge has suggested that prosecutors detail the costs saved by companies by ignoring their duties, so that courts can set fines that adequately deter such offending.
A worker who took "ornamental" duelling pistols and explosives to work to show his colleagues was rightly dismissed, irrespective of whether the weapons were inert or perceived by others as safe, a commission has found.
A confined-space worker who wasn't provided with flame-resistant PPE or adequate training on how to deal with a fire has been awarded more than $700,000 in damages.
> Unsafe employers and supervisor fined; > National risk standard and Vic safety regulations commence; and > New laws underpin ACT's workers' comp self-insurance licence.
A WHS regulator is likely to target more industries, issue more statutory notices and push for more enforceable undertakings, after the ACT Government gave in principle support to all 27 recommendations of a compliance review.
