Employers have wellbeing-related duties to contractors and subcontractors and need to think outside the square and build relationships with those who might be suffering from poor mental health, a workplace mental wellness expert says.
> Daily inspections missed height risk; > Alternative safety plan overridden before electric shock; and > Three-year strategy focuses on safety of Vic healthcare workers.
Employers could be fined nearly $200,000 for failing to comply with new notification regulations for COVID-19 in Victoria. Meanwhile, a WHS regulator has issued an alert to help duty holders identify fake respirators during the pandemic.
Three employers, including a repeat offender, have been convicted and fined a total of $245,000, after a worker was killed on a public street, and other workers were seriously injured by an unguarded machine and an act of violence.
Safety regulators and police will target workplaces and enforce the use of face masks under a Victorian plan to tackle the concerning increase in COVID-19 cases in the State. Meanwhile, Safe Work Australia has released a checklist for complying with WHS laws while transitioning workers back to usual workplaces during the pandemic.
> High-risk occupations overlooked in COVID-19 pandemic; > Warnings issued after crane and hose deaths; and > Another WHS regulator issues white card safety warning.
An employer has implemented processes for engaging specialist contractors to move equipment in hazardous circumstances, and entered a $1 million undertaking, after its alleged failure to complete a job safety analysis led to a worker being crushed by a 1.4-tonne machine.
In this article, OHS Alert reviews all the need-to-know workplace safety and compensation developments from the second quarter of 2020, including Australia's first industrial manslaughter conviction, recklessness cases, work-related pandemic restrictions and wholesale legislative changes.
In a case reminding employers of the reach of their workplace health and safety duties, a business has entered a $281,000 undertaking to escape prosecution over an incident where an elderly person was burned by black coffee.
An employer dismissed a health and safety representative through a "sham" redundancy after it accused him of "running off" to complain to a safety regulator and "unlawfully holding meetings" on the health risks posed by bushfire smoke, the Federal Court has ruled.
