Coronavirus controls and restrictions have been stepped up across the country, with exemptions for certain workplaces and workers, while the ACTU's "name and fame" list of businesses providing special paid sick leave to staff is rapidly growing.
WHS regulators are increasingly turning to infringement notices to tackle safety breaches, while the number of prosecutions has surged in one jurisdiction following a controversial lull, according to one of four new comparison reports from Safe Work Australia. The agency has also outlined PCBUs' duties involving air pollution.
In this much anticipated report, OHS Alert outlines all the major legislative changes and court decisions on workplace health and safety and workers' comp issues in the final quarter of 2019.
Residual current devices (RCDs) should be installed in all workplaces, regardless of the construction date, while defibrillators need to be more widely available, particularly at remote sites, an inquest into an electrocution has found.
In an unusual case, a worker has been denied workers' compensation after a tribunal found his injury probably resulted from serious and wilful misconduct, with his employer asserting he cut his own finger to get out of a jail sentence.
An employer has been found not liable for an injured worker's suicide, which his widow claims was caused by using cannabis to cope with the pain from his work injury.
In this update, OHS Alert revisits all the important work health and safety and workers' compensation legislative changes from the third quarter of 2019. We also recap the most significant court and tribunal rulings and other developments from across the country.
