A PCBU has been fined for failing to report a head knock to a regulator, while a worker who should have refused his employer's request to carry out unsafe work has been fined over a co-worker's injuries, and a man has been penalised for his "disgraceful" asbestos breaches.
A judge has increased an employer's WHS fine nearly three-fold on appeal, stressing that a worker's injury-causing "stupidity" occurred in the context of the employer's failure to separate pedestrians and mobile plant, and slamming a magistrate's "almost unintelligible" remarks on the matter.
A regulator has warned that union officials must hold valid right-of-entry permits when entering sites under provisions for "resolving" WHS matters, after the High Court blocked an appeal on the issue.
A manager's "overtly transactional" text message proposals and acts of withholding work to intimidate a worker into having s-x with him, meant going to work was "fraught with difficulty" for the worker and warranted police intervention, a commissioner has found.
Employers have been urged to boost their safety standards by maintaining a sense of "chronic unease", after a company and two individuals were convicted and fined over a young worker's death attributed to a workplace culture of complacency.
An employer could have prevented serious burn injuries, and avoided a WHS penalty, through simple measures like ensuring equipment was properly secured during transport and fitting a vehicle with safety equipment, a judgment has shown.
A workplace supervisor charged with failing to discharge his safety obligations, in relation to a fatality, has been refused Supreme Court orders restoring his certificate of competency and ability to remain employed.
A worker was required to "exercise independent judgement" on the safest way to perform an "ill defined" task on plant, which had been inappropriately modified to reduce maintenance costs, in the moments before he was killed by a "spring-back" event of "unprecedented magnitude", an inquest has found.
> Customer's death costs employer $500k; > Labour-hire fines increase to $370k, as fatality alerts issued; and > Seventy-seven WHS notices issued in troubled suburb.
