An employer has been convicted for failing to take measures against workers being injured in the "shadow" zone of falling objects, after a worker was crushed by a 400kg steel coil.
An employer that negligently failed to identify and remove a slip hazard, which injured a labour-hire apprentice, is entitled to recover the $614,000 damages bill from its public liability insurer, an appeals court has ruled.
The Department of Defence has been convicted and fined $300,000 for breaching its WHS duties to provide a safe system of work and proper supervision to children involved in a cadet exercise. Meanwhile, a Victorian "social experiment" has found most young workers are willing to accept unsafe conditions or bullying to secure employment, highlighting the vulnerability of those under 25.
A franchisee of a major fast food chain has claimed that WHS laws do not confer an entitlement on its workers to have a drink or go to the toilet outside their scheduled 10-minute drink break, in an ongoing Federal Court case.
Generational gaps in the workplace can lead to hazardous misunderstandings and conflict. Employers need to ensure managers are flexible enough to accommodate younger workers' different approaches to work, a psychologist and employee assistance expert says.
Employers have been urged to review their rostering practices and introduce strategies to improve team dynamics and efficiency, after an Australian study found junior doctors who work long hours are at high risk of suicidal ideation.
A young worker unaccustomed to full-time employment and early starts was fatigued from work when he crashed his car and died on his way home from work, a commission has found.
Workplace social structures and worksite "champions" can be leveraged to protect transient or temporary staff like contract or labour-hire workers, who are more vulnerable to health and safety hazards than permanent workers, researchers say.
The number of serious workplace falls and related prosecutions is reaching epidemic proportions and will force courts to increase penalty levels, a judge has warned in handing a PCBU a pre-discount fine of $240,000.
> Workplace manslaughter and "crime scene" package launched; > Fatigue tests trialled as truck fatalities surge; and > PCBU and director charged over apprentice's electrocution.
