Workers' comp claims agents have taken steps to conceal rather than eliminate unethical practices identified in a damning 2016 report, the Victorian Ombudsman has found. The five agents cherry-pick evidence to reject complex claims and intrusively surveil injured workers "without a shred of evidence to justify it", she found.
Reforming one of Australia's major workers' comp schemes has had significant unintended consequences on injured workers' health, providing caution for future changes, researchers have found in an analysis of four years of claims data.
One of the first workers to seek orders under Queensland's new anti-bullying jurisdiction has lost her appeal against a finding that she was not bullied at work, and wouldn't be in the foreseeable future.
> PCBU ordered to train WHS officer and fined $76k; > High-risk work strategy and other safety initiatives launched in NSW; > New dust disease victims identified under WHS screening scheme; and > NSW WHS review announced, explosives list gazetted.
Costly workplace exercise programs might improve workers' physical capacity, but employers can gain similar benefits from providing them with personalised fitness management, which does not require space or equipment, researchers say.
An Australian project involving wearable sensors has found certain common manual handling tasks in the healthcare sector are far more hazardous than previously thought, and identified cost-effective ways to control the risks.
A major employer accused of exposing a travelling salesperson to the risk of serious injury or death has committed more than $5.3 million to safety rectifications and enforceable undertakings, including a strategy aimed at preventing members of the public from placing themselves in the "line of fire" of work vehicles.
Workers whose tasks require sustained emotional effort, like responding to customers' worries and aggression, are significantly more likely to require long-term sick leave, a major study of more than 26,000 workers has found.