A PCBU and its director have escaped prosecution for fatality-related category 2 WHS breaches because of "evidentiary issues", but have been convicted and fined for failing to cooperate with the investigation into the death.
A supervisor has become the second entity to be convicted and fined over a FIFO worker's drowning, after he pleaded guilty to failing to follow his employer's safety manual or provide safe access to the workplace.
A man sleeping in a loading dock would not have been killed if a subcontractor had been inducted in and followed basic operating procedures, a regulator says. Meanwhile, an individual has been fined over a serious safety incident that could have been prevented at little cost.
A PCBU faces a fatality-related fine of up to $1.5 million, after a High Court majority found that Federal civil aviation laws operate within the framework of WHS legislation and other state, territory and Commonwealth laws.
The Australian Defence Force's failure to implement a safety rule recommended after a 2009 fatality - for which it was handed a near-maximum work health and safety fine - contributed to the death of an inexperienced soldier in a live firing exercise, an inquest has found.
In a case prompting renewed calls for industrial manslaughter laws, a PCBU that failed to comply with its own safety management manual or apply available controls has been convicted over a death, while another employer has been fined over a painter's fatal fall.
A High Court full bench has reserved its decision on whether the harmonised WHS laws operate in conjunction with other legislation, like civil aviation laws, which previously "covered the field".
A coroner has condemned an employer's actions in demoting a worker struggling with mental illness, instead of seeking to accommodate her condition as required by its procedures and anti-discrimination laws, in an inquest into the worker's suicide.
