Employers planning to introduce new safety or health-monitoring procedures are required to consult with health and safety representatives and workers on the issue of gendered violence, and must not wait for formal reports of gendered violence incidents before addressing the matter, new guidelines warn.
An employer that allegedly failed to prepare a safe work method statement for an elevating work platform, after it was advised of a subcontractor's plan to use one, will provide mental health first-aid training to employees and subcontractors under a bid to avoid prosecution.
> COVID-19 triggers broad travel ban for education workers; > Eye rolling can constitute workplace violence; > New injury dispute system being made by upcoming NSW Bill; and > Workers' comp amendments commence in ACT.
The Department of Defence has been convicted and fined $300,000 for breaching its WHS duties to provide a safe system of work and proper supervision to children involved in a cadet exercise. Meanwhile, a Victorian "social experiment" has found most young workers are willing to accept unsafe conditions or bullying to secure employment, highlighting the vulnerability of those under 25.
A requirement to lower a vehicle's access ladder from a "safe location" was an administrative control that could be bypassed either deliberately or inadvertently, an investigation into a worker's death has found. Meanwhile, an employer recently charged with seven dangerous goods breaches has been accused of 21 more offences.
In a brace of tragic coincidences this week, the death of two train workers in a derailment came just a day after a regulator released its findings on the death of a rail worker distracted by his mobile phone, while a worker was killed in a shipping container incident after an employer was fined heavily over a similar fatality.
> Worker vaccinations compulsory under new Vic laws; > Electrical safety licensing system passes Parliament; and > Mandatory disease tests to protect more workers in WA.
Safe Work Australia has released a series of guidance materials clarifying: PCBUs' duties to monitor the health of workers exposed to hazardous substances; the substances that trigger this obligation; and how to act on medical reports.
