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.
In this article, OHS Alert reviews all the major WHS and workers' comp developments from the final quarter of 2018, including the release of ISO 45001 as an Australian Standard, record-breaking safety fines and enforceable undertakings, and legislative changes.
A tribunal has highlighted that an employer's WHS duty doesn't require it to eliminate every perceivable risk or sideline its obligation to return injured workers to work.
A worker has proven a causal link between his life-threatening heart condition and a crush injury sustained at work 15 years earlier. Meanwhile, a worker's widow has been awarded lump sum compensation, despite this benefit not being available to her at the time of the worker's death.
A PCBU and its director have been handed record-high fines totalling more than $250,000 for ignoring a series of improvement and prohibition notices. Meanwhile, SafeWork NSW has issued nearly 100 height-related on-the-spot fines in a blitz, and SafeWork SA has issued a heat warning.
The communication barrier between SafeWork SA's educator and regulatory arms, which allows PCBUs to seek advice without fear of a WHS prosecution, creates obvious and potentially catastrophic safety risks, and must be scrapped immediately, State Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander QC has found.
A tribunal has ruled that a worker's work tasks significantly contributed to him suffering heart failure, in the absence of proof ruling out the possibility.
