Employers are required to develop return-to-work plans in consultation with injured workers regardless of the severity of their conditions, a regulator has warned after a company was convicted. Meanwhile, a worker has been handed a suspended prison sentence for workers' comp fraud after dozens of boxes of unused prescription drugs were found in his home.
> Three PCBUs charged with four category 2 breaches; > More WHS inspectors exposed to violence, this time in NSW; and > Guarding set-up breached Australian Standard and OHS Act.
> Major OHS discrimination case prompts warning; > PCBU failed to learn from amputation, fined $594k; and > Improvement notices stalled under Qld work bans.
> Families contributing to workplace manslaughter reforms; > Missing beeper and beacon constitute OHS breach; and > NSW launches eToolkit to improve young workers' safety.
A company owner will spend the next few months in jail, after dropping her appeal against her sentence for recklessly endangering and killing an employee.
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.
An employer that neglected to tell contractors that a structure they were scheduled to work on had failed an inspection, resulting in a roof collapsing under a worker, has failed to overturn its OHS penalty.
A company owner has been jailed for recklessly endangering and killing a worker. Meanwhile, a major employer has been fined nearly $500,000 for threatening an HSR who refused to endorse an unsafe work method, and another employer has been fined over a quarry death.
