A PCBU that claimed it wasn't contractually obligated to implement safety measures that could have prevented a fatality has been fined $500,000 for category 2 WHS breaches.
A court has recorded a conviction against a company and nearly doubled its fine for failing to reduce or eliminate height risks, while a regulator has called for employers to review their engineering control plans, following a string of electric shock incidents.
An Amendment Bill extending the offence of industrial manslaughter to Queensland's resources sector, with tougher financial penalties than under the WHS Act, has passed Parliament, and will commence on a day to be fixed by proclamation.
An engineer and his company have been fined a total of $230,000 for breaching WHS laws in providing untested advice to a high-risk project, which led to an incident that could have killed two workers.
The worker convicted and a fined over the Sydney hospital gas incidents that killed one newborn baby, and severely injured another, could have averted the tragedies by conducting the simple tests he was qualified and paid to perform, the sentencing remarks show.
A PCBU has been found guilty of WHS breaches after a structure it erected fatally crushed a worker, with a court rejecting its claim it wasn't responsible for any post-erection safety control measures.
A major PCBU has been found not guilty of WHS charges relating to the installation and mislabelling of gas pipes, which led to the death of a newborn baby and serious injuries to another in a Sydney hospital, with a court finding a subcontractor "lied" about completing the pipeline tests.
A PCBU accused of breaching WHS laws, in failing to prepare a proper emergency plan for "worker entrapment by... robotic arms", has avoided prosecution through a $500,000 commitment to digitalise its safety management system and other initiatives.
A worker has been sentenced to 12 months' jail for reckless conduct that killed a co-worker, in a judgment revealing a litany of safety failures resulting from inadequate training, time pressures and cost-saving measures.
