A judge has highlighted the critical roles elected health and safety representatives play in achieving the objectives of WHS laws, and making it feasible for PCBUs to comply with their consultation duties, in fining a Qantas subsidiary for "shameful" WHS discrimination.
Determining and comparing how "work is really done" with how it is "imagined" in safety documents is key to designing work with minimal psychosocial risks of burnout and stress, according to new regulatory guidance.
Two PCBUs that failed to consult on task planning and mechanical aids have been fined over a teenager's death, while a business owner with a long history of safety breaches has been fined for endangering motorists through the performance of "poor quality" work next to a highway.
A major employer's failure to consult workers on a controversial WHS mandate created a "paradigm of opposition" in the workforce and led to a large number of workers being unfairly dismissed, a commission has ruled in a 529-paragraph judgment.
Two PCBUs have been convicted and fined a total of more than $530,000 for multiple WHS contraventions, after a heavy object fell and smashed a glass atrium roof, seriously injuring a site worker and a passing courier.
An employer has been convicted of category-3 WHS breaches for failing to monitor a labour-hire worker's tasks at a placement, where he was injured performing work outside of the scope of his experience.
Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd has been found guilty of engaging in unlawful discriminatory conduct against an elected health and safety representative during the emergence of COVID-19, with a judge ruling that consultation failings on the HSR's part did not invalidate his cease-work directions or help Qantas's defence.
A leading legal expert on technology and the workplace has warned of the WHS risks and implications of using "bossware" to track workers' productivity, including that it can trigger cease-work orders under safety laws.
Unsafe job demands are the most common psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces, and employers must explore multiple measures to safeguard against the risk to a reasonably practicable extent, a Comcare director says.