An injured worker's right to apply in advance to recover future treatment costs is not a stand-alone entitlement excluded from prescribed time limitations, an appeals court has ruled in an important judgment on poorly drafted laws.
A PCBU that exposed a visiting pest controller to the risk of death or serious injury from a fall through a trapdoor has been convicted and fined, in a long-running case that challenged the validity of all WHS prosecutions over a three-year period.
A full bench has found emails sent by an injured worker constituted an application for future compensable surgery, but agreed his claim was blocked by being too vague on the procedure he needed and when.
Thousands of asbestos-containing materials are still in place in workplaces and homes and employers that disregard the deadly hazard are being targeted, according to warnings issued for national Asbestos Awareness Week this week. Meanwhile, the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency's functions are likely to be expanded under the recommendations of a statutory review tabled in Parliament today.
An Australian employer has unsuccessfully argued that if it is found liable for injuries a worker sustained in a job performed entirely in a foreign country it will be put at a commercial disadvantage, and this cannot be the intent of workers' comp laws.
> Walkthroughs and "common sense" fail to achieve WHS compliance; > Five principles to reduce workers' comp stress in NSW; and > Alerts follow electrocution, rollover death and water jet injuries.
The employer of two supervisors who were convicted for recklessly attacking an apprentice, has been convicted and fined for failing to address bullying and harassment in its otherwise extensive WHS policies.
WHS inspectors will use body-worn cameras and work in pairs during certain workplace visits under a regulator's plan to discourage "bribery or attempts of persuasion by PCBUs".
