In fining a company director for WHS breaches, a tribunal has found she failed to ensure her business complied with its duty to refuel a burner in a safe manner. The tribunal also questioned the suitability of equipment where risk-control hinges on strict compliance with every safety step in a manual.
Safe Work Australia has updated the model WHS Regulations and its guidance on the meaning of "person conducting a business or undertaking", while WHS provisions have been amended in NSW and South Australia, and the ACT has established a public register for reporting infringements by WHS licensees.
In upholding a worker's noise-induced hearing loss claim, a tribunal has found claimants bear the onus of proving the relevant employment involved excessive noise exposure, before the evidentiary onus shifts to the respondent to show otherwise.
A safety regulator has urged workplace leaders to learn from the first successful prosecution, under the harmonised WHS laws, of an individual for workplace bullying, and revealed it received more than 1,300 calls on psychological risks and bullying in 2019-20. Another regulator says it is targeting unhygienic toilets in a blitz.
> Model WHS Regulations amended ahead of GHS transition; > PCBU fined $100k over child's collision injuries in Qld; > All older tower cranes inspected too late in WA; and > SA PCBU contravened WHS clause covering MEWPs.
This article examines all the must-know workplace safety, workers' compensation and COVID-19 developments from July, August and September 2020, with highlights including a new WHS Code for the pandemic, the Dreamworld judgment, a record double-fatality fine and gross negligence cases.
A WHS regulator has identified the absence of adequate controls for preventing three-metre-plus falls as a major area of non-compliance in the high-risk construction sector. It has also, coincidentally, accepted a PCBU's bid to enter an enforceable undertaking after a worker fell four metres.
