> WHS amendments mandate "competent" managers in SA; > WHS conviction and $400k fine followed by NSW blitz; and > Beaconsfield rescuer fronts worker and family support group.
In this article, OHS Alert reviews all the need-to-know workplace safety and compensation developments from the second quarter of 2020, including Australia's first industrial manslaughter conviction, recklessness cases, work-related pandemic restrictions and wholesale legislative changes.
> NSW employers warned on COVID fines and enforcement plans; > Comcare issues reminder on coronavirus notifications; and > SA relaunches WHS audit prompted by fatalities.
Step-down provisions that reduce injured workers' benefits after a year have been applied to the first payments made to a worker with a keyboard-related injury, based on an incapacity date set by consent orders.
> WHS Amendment Bill bypasses health privacy laws in NSW; > WHS regulators issue warnings after lion attack, other incidents; > Qld announces workers' comp premium rate for 2020-21; and > Labour-hire licensing scheme narrowed in SA.
> COVID-19 work recovery plans due now; > Workplace COVID-19 controls mandated in Tas; > COVID-19 lift policy and 15-minute rule announced in NT; > Coronavirus construction checklist launched in Vic; and > SA's workplace silica threshold halving in two weeks.
A beneficiary of emergency work-related injury payments borrowed money from his mother to travel overseas, sinking his claim that he financially supported the widow and his two young siblings, a commission has found.
In a landmark decision, an appeals court has rejected a major employer's excessively "restrictive" interpretation of work-related psychiatric injury laws, in a case involving a teacher injured by work while being weaned off antipsychotic drugs and experiencing marital problems.
A worker who won access to psychometric testing data deeming him unsuitable for his role has lost his unfair dismissal case, but the Fair Work Commission criticised his employer for exposing employees to fundamentally unfair third-party testing protocols.
