> NSW tweaks WHS Codes, investigates deaths, releases RTW paper; > Work operations suspended, as safety laws amended for Qld DV victims; and > Strategies for tackling musculoskeletal disorders released in WA.
Employers can prevent the "drift" into complacency and safety failures, which often follows a period of success, by applying the principles of "high reliability organisational theory" and seeking out "near-miss signals", according to one of three major reports on fatalities and safety laws in Queensland. It also recommends an alternative metric to the notoriously misleading LTIFR.
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.
> Directors' WHS breaches injured boy on amusement device; > Mobile phone distraction fines increase by 150% next week; and > Worker killed by inadvertent crane operation.
A judge has confirmed that an injury sustained by a worker, when she briefly ceased performing her duties to participate in a recreational activity, didn't arise from her employment, but stressed it was unnecessary and probably incorrect to apply the High Court "interval" test to the five-second activity.
A PCBU that made a half-hearted attempt to comply with three improvement notices has been prosecuted and fined $24,000. Meanwhile, workplace safety regulations for using equipment in non-explosive atmospheres have been simplified in Queensland.
A worker's psych injury from arguing with his supervisor outside the workplace on his day off was work-related, because it was a culmination of a number of hostile interactions between them in the workplace, a commission has found.
