A WHS regulator's investigative function will receive a $390,000 boost, after South Australia Police (SAPOL) was handed a record-equalling fine over the death of a worker in a freezer at a training facility.
In an important and much anticipated case, an appeals court has found a worker can't "combine" his impairments from a back injury and from being over-prescribed opioid medication to increase his lump sum payment.
In this comprehensive report, OHS Alert reviews all the major WHS and workers' comp developments from the first quarter of 2019, including the unprecedented jailing of company directors, the outcomes of the national WHS review, and significant legislative changes in every jurisdiction.
SafeWork SA has accepted a $677,000 enforceable undertaking (EU) from one of two major employers charged with WHS offences, after a worker died from being trapped in a walk-in freezer at a police training facility.
An appeals court has rejected claims, by a regulator, that a worker's industrial deafness claim was defeated by his last noisy employer's transition to the national self-insurance scheme five years before he sought compensation.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered the managing director of a company - issued three bullying-related WHS improvement notices - not to use his lawyers to communicate with a worker, in a suite of stop-bullying orders that clarify the worker's role and who can discipline her.
> First engineered stone dust death reported in Qld; > ICAC releases "learnings" from SafeWork SA probe; and > Relying on visual barrier results in multiple WHS charges.
A worker was playing cricket when he was injured to help him transition safely between shift schedules, and did so in the course of his employment regardless of whether he was required to "manage" his time off, a tribunal full bench has confirmed.
An employer's decision to make a worker's role redundant was understandable, but it wasn't reasonable and made his injury compensable, a tribunal has ruled.
A tribunal has ruled that workplace chemicals caused a worker's terminal cancer, after identifying a "significant gap" in the available protections against direct skin exposure.
