The coronavirus pandemic poses major health risks to frontline workers, but other less obvious serious safety issues will arise from pandemic-related job insecurity and prolonged teleworking, a leading Australian occupational and environmental physician has warned.
The substantive proceedings for a worker's claim that he developed dementia as a result of witnessing a traumatic fatality have been given the go-ahead, with a judge allowing him to appoint a litigation guardian.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has stressed that employers must communicate changes to their drug and alcohol policies, including through training and timely warnings, in upholding the reinstatement of a safety-critical worker who tested positive for cannabis.
A regulator has been blocked from re-opening a case, recently dismissed by the High Court, against a worker who was awarded lump sum payments for injuries caused by opioid medication.
A worker sacked for misusing pain medication has been given another chance to overturn his dismissal, after arguing it was wrong to presume his employer did not need to take a rehabilitative approach to his case in the absence of an admission of guilt by him.
A worker's successful claim that her psych injury arose from being treated unreasonably by management, after she was transferred to a worksite she didn't want to go to, has been overturned on appeal.
Keeping communications upbeat, holding virtual team meetings and reminding workers their EAPs are there if they need them, are key strategies for overcoming the harmful social isolation workers could experience working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a safety and injury management expert says.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing social distancing measures and many workers to work from home, often at very short notice, employers must remember they have a duty to ensure working environments in homes and elsewhere are healthy and safe, a senior safety lawyer says in this Q&A with OHS Alert.
Employers planning to introduce new safety or health-monitoring procedures are required to consult with health and safety representatives and workers on the issue of gendered violence, and must not wait for formal reports of gendered violence incidents before addressing the matter, new guidelines warn.
