> Improve WHS by restoring consultation grants, says ACCI; > Safe Rates restoration endorsed by ATA; and > Anti-violence Bill to protect Federal employees.
> Three PCBUs charged with four category 2 breaches; > More WHS inspectors exposed to violence, this time in NSW; and > Guarding set-up breached Australian Standard and OHS Act.
A union official recently accused of hindering a WHS inspector in Queensland has been charged with doing the same thing in another jurisdiction, while two of his colleagues have been charged with misleadingly telling workers they were entitled, by WHS laws, to leave an "unsafe" site on full pay.
> Major OHS discrimination case prompts warning; > PCBU failed to learn from amputation, fined $594k; and > Improvement notices stalled under Qld work bans.
A WHS regulator has stressed that it is continuing to tackle imminent or serious safety risks under current "work bans", and progressing strategies to protect its inspectors from threats or assaults, after the Federal Government warned that these inspectors are living in fear of occupational violence.
A worker's frustration over his employer's PPE policy and alleged failure to prioritise safety over cost did not excuse his aggressive and intimidating conduct towards his co-workers, a commission has confirmed.
A man has been prosecuted for threatening to kill a WHS inspector, while a safety regulator has issued a special forklift warning for the Christmas period, and another regulator has launched an anti-violence blitz.
Two PCBUs and a director have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 after an unsupervised 14-year-old holiday worker was killed, while an employer has been fined over a violent attack on a worker, after a union officially requested the safety prosecution.
Employers need to put in place far more comprehensive management plans for handling mental health emergencies in FIFO workplaces, according to one of 18 recommendations from a major new study on the mental health of FIFO workers.
