A worker has been sentenced to 12 months' jail for reckless conduct that killed a co-worker, in a judgment revealing a litany of safety failures resulting from inadequate training, time pressures and cost-saving measures.
A maintenance contractor has been ordered to pay a total of more than $1.8 million in damages to four workers, after its failure to take adequate care when maintaining a component of a lift caused the lift to malfunction and injure the workers.
A crane operator originally charged with the manslaughter of a co-worker has pleaded guilty to reckless conduct, and faces penalties of up to five years' jail and $300,000.
A major employer's duties as the occupier of a premises did not extend to ensuring a specialist contractor, engaged by another company, strictly complied with suitable safe work method statements, an appeals court has confirmed in an important damages case.
A workplace "exclusion zone" was established in a way that "invited" rather than deterred access to the area, and contributed to a work experience student's life-changing injuries, a court has found in convicting and fining a PCBU.
One of Australia's largest employers negligently failed to implement a simple system for keeping a floor free from slippery substances, or act on a worker's complaints about the issue, a superior court has ruled.
A fatal work vehicle explosion was triggered by an exposed wire in a storage compartment containing a gas cylinder, which wasn't stored in accordance with the relevant Australian Standards, codes of practice or safety data sheets, an inquest has found.
An employer has failed to convince a superior court a worker was not "forced" to undertake a risky activity and negligently failed to refuse to perform it.
Safety regulations for exclusion zones and equipment in the construction industry could be overhauled under recommendations from an inquest into a young worker's death, which led to the first reckless conduct charges under Australia's harmonised WHS laws.
In sentencing a PCBU for multiple breaches of WHS regulations, a judge has suggested that prosecutors detail the costs saved by companies by ignoring their duties, so that courts can set fines that adequately deter such offending.
