A tribunal has expressed sympathy for a worker with a permanent, painful "fluctuating impairment" affecting his dexterity, but found his condition does not satisfy the criteria for lump sum compensation.
Legal researchers have called for employers to use workplace investigations to eliminate s-xual harassment risks instead of silencing complainants, and warned that COVID-19 is making it harder to detect poor behaviour. Meanwhile, studies have identified links between unsupportive leaders and poor health from bullying and harassment.
A PCBU has committed nearly $600,000 to putting hundreds of its workers from linguistically diverse backgrounds through English classes covering safety and site-specific issues, under a $1.5 million WHS undertaking.
A commission has quashed a finding that an employer unreasonably denied a worker access to a psychologist and an HR advisor, when issues around a conflict of interest involving his wife became heated.
An appeals court has examined the reach of workplace control provisions and the duty to tackle subsisting risks, in an important judgment upholding a $230,000 fatality fine.
> NSW launches COVID-19 work guidance, addresses misconceptions; > PCBUs warned after worker killed by damaged gate; > Revamped WHS regulator to focus on climate change and violence; and > ACTU applauds Vic's broader workplace death definition.
An employer has committed to trialling vehicle safety sensor systems and rolling out the collision avoidance technology across its entire fleet, after being accused of WHS breaches relating to the death of a worker in a runaway vehicle incident.
> COVID-19 and silica updates from NSW, Vic, WA and SWA; > Manslaughter laws come with broader definition of workplace death; and > Inventory overhauled for new risk-based chemical safety system.
Employers will be forced to make quickfire decisions on right-of-entry disputes, under recent amendments to the Queensland WHS Act, according to workplace health and safety lawyers.
An employer unlawfully discriminated against an older worker in refusing to engage him for work in a hot environment, with its manager likening the proposed labour-hire arrangement to sending "your dad or granddad" into high-risk conditions, a court has found.
