"Basic clutter" like stacked boxes and bags on the floor is one of seven significant safety hazards frequently overlooked by employers, according to a global risk management provider.
A worker's psychiatric injury from being s-xually harassed by a colleague at a social club Christmas party was work-related, because the employer allowed other workers to cover for them so they could attend the function, a commission has found.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected three workers' bids for "oppressive" interim stop-bullying orders blocking disciplinary action against them, while a full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a worker sacked for her drunken behaviour at a client's premises.
A full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal from a worker - whose injury dispute helped reform the administrative action test - against a finding that her injury arose from a performance appraisal and wasn't compensable.
> Should HSRs' offshore powers be aligned with WHS Act? > Manager charged over belittling language and other bullying; and > Major employer and others charged with multiple WHS breaches.
A supervisor whose purported "brain fade" exposed a teenage apprentice to the risk of serious burns and death, in a case of "high jinks gone wrong", has been convicted and fined for the most serious WHS offence of reckless conduct.
The World Health Organisation has redefined "burnout" as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed, and warned that poor work safety policies and inflexible hours can create or exacerbate the condition.
Workplace bullying not only harms victims' health but encourages them to engage in "deviant" behaviour at work in order to cope, UK and Italian researchers have found.
An employer has been commended for how it dealt with an abusive and confrontational worker while also addressing his allegations that a supervisor was bullying a co-worker.
