As COVID-19 pandemic restrictions ease across the country, a WHS regulator has outlined its policies for enforcing physical distancing rules for lifts in work buildings, transport operators have been told to closely monitor workers' health and separate them from passengers, and the Australian Industry Group has warned against tough penalties for working-at-home breaches.
A worker whose long list of ankle and hip injuries began with excessive walking in work safety boots, has been permitted to combine his impairments for lump sum purposes, in a ruling on complex and controversial laws that are the subject of multiple appeals.
> NSW's COVID-19 work recovery tool guided by 100 years of crises; > SA employers should expect COVID call from a WHS inspector; > Vic workers told to keep working at home; and > Start date for ACT's labour-hire licensing scheme confirmed.
A tribunal full bench has confirmed that an employer is liable for the injuries a worker sustained in a volleyball match, which his CEO promoted in an email encouraging participation in "collective terms".
A tribunal full bench has quashed a finding that an injured worker's purported disciplinary issues and poor attendance record should not be taken into account when deciding whether to provide him with suitable employment.
A worker's psychiatric injury was not caused by her stressful personal history, as contended by her employer, but a violent workplace confrontation that "reignited" a previous work-related condition she never fully recovered from, a tribunal has found.
> SWA launches COVID-19 hub and home setup guide; > More work-related COVID-19 guides and fatality alerts issued; and > HSEQ manager appointed boss of NT WorkSafe.
In a case highlighting the potential long-term impact of seemingly innocuous office injuries, a tribunal has found that medical records showing a worker's work injuries were asymptomatic when he was being treated for other ailments doesn't mean his work injuries have resolved.
An employer has been ordered to produce documents, for a psychiatric injury dispute, which could prove a worker was concerned and injured by a manager's inappropriate behaviour well before the worker was subjected to purportedly reasonable disciplinary action.
In important concurrent judgments, a tribunal full bench has quashed, for lack of evidence, a finding that steroid injections proposed for an injured worker constitute compensable surgery, and upheld a ruling that another injured worker's nerve block injections aren't surgical treatments.
