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.
> 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.
The role that OHS professionals and services are playing in transforming organisational and national systems and policies, for COVID-19 and future pandemics, is a key focus of World Day for Safety and Health at Work and Workers' Memorial Day tomorrow. Meanwhile, employers have been warned that flu vaccinations are particularly crucial this season.
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.
> Qantas rejects COVID-19 claims as 750 staff told to self-isolate; > COVID-19 work injury Bills introduced in SA; and > Did you miss our latest quarterly update and coronavirus coverage?
An employer unreasonably contributed to a worker's psychiatric injury by trying to test his honesty in a final penalty meeting and withholding key information from an investigation into his misconduct, a tribunal has found.
In this latest edition of our long-running quarterly update series, OHS Alert reviews all the key WHS news from the first three months of 2020, including everything you need to know on the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings on Dreamworld's dismal safety systems, caselaw from all jurisdictions, and legislative changes.
