A Fair Work Commission full bench has allowed a worker to challenge a significant ruling that his refusal to use a fingerprint scanner, to register his presence at work for safety reasons, was a valid reason for his dismissal.
A worker who broke her leg after smoking on a workplace rooftop prior to starting a shift was on an "ordinary recess" and is entitled to compensation, because her employer required her to attend work 10 minutes early, an appeals court has ruled.
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.
> Manslaughter provisions promised for model WHS Act; > PCBU fined $210k over unloading death; and > WA appoints new WorkSafe Commissioner, releases emergency guide.
A man has been prosecuted for threatening to kill a WHS inspector, while a safety regulator has issued a special forklift warning for the Christmas period, and another regulator has launched an anti-violence blitz.
A workplace quad bike victim's injury damages have been increased by 40 per cent on appeal. Meanwhile, a worker has failed to prove his noisy workplace was noisy enough to cause his tinnitus.
Two PCBUs and a director have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 after an unsupervised 14-year-old holiday worker was killed, while an employer has been fined over a violent attack on a worker, after a union officially requested the safety prosecution.
In a decision highlighting the importance of clear workplace drug and alcohol policies, a commission has awarded $17,795 to a worker who was sacked for failing to declare he was taking Nurofen Plus.
