Workplace leaders learn the majority of what they know about health and safety from their employers, showing employers should use that influence to drive safety outcomes, according to the head of health, safety and security for one of Australia's biggest infrastructure projects.
> New laws protect safety of contractors and gig economy workers; > Safety Regs with WHS clauses released, WorkSafe Vic boss resigns; and > SRC and disability discrimination instruments introduced.
A PCBU and its director exposed four worksite neighbours to the risk of serious injury or death in ignoring their WHS obligations under time and cost pressures, a court has found in fining them a total of more than $200,000.
A PCBU that incorrectly believed an expert contractor was obliged to advise it when a building maintenance unit (BMU) was due for a major inspection has been convicted and fined $400,000, after two workers were seriously injured in a 12-storey fall.
A PCBU that failed to identify the risks posed by a damaged footpath outside a worksite has become the second entity to be convicted over the death of an elderly man in a mobility scooter crash, and been handed a significant penalty.
An equipment manufacturer's flawed manual, and a PCBU's extensive safety efforts prior to an incident, have helped push down the PCBU's culpability for a WHS offence to "the low end of the mid-range".
A "contractor" required by an employer to provide "specialised services" that he didn't perform for his own business was an employee of the employer when he was injured, a superior court has found.
A PCBU knew workers from other businesses were removing parts of its scaffold without authorisation but failed to routinely check its integrity, a court has found in fining it $225,000 over a major scaffolding collapse where workers were forced to ride falling material down seven storeys.
The principal contractor of a site where language barriers affected safety has been fined $180,000, after a worker fell five metres. An individual was fined $22,500 over the incident.
A PCBU has committed more than $1 million to integrating a disparate "mix" of work management and paper-based safety processes into a digital contractor management platform, after a worker fell seven metres at a client's site.
