A company director failed to exercise due diligence to ensure an identified height risk was recorded in weekly risk assessment and safety observation documents, which led to a worker sustaining serious injuries, a court has found.
A company secretary has been fined for the most serious OHS offence of reckless endangerment for forklift breaches, in one of several new cases showing regulators are willing to prosecute unsafe entities even where injuries haven't occurred.
An employer that failed to act on a series of safety warning signs has been fined $250,000, after a worker inadvertently activated the controls on an elevated work platform (EWP) and was crushed to death.
A facilities management company was entitled to rely on an expert contractor to set up and service a building maintenance unit (BMU), but wasn't entitled to rely on it to push for a mandatory major inspection of the BMU, which could have prevented a serious safety incident, a court has ruled.
Four employers have been fined a total of nearly $350,000, after a misdirected swim school student sustained debilitating spinal injuries, a student worker fell five metres and other serious incidents, while a company's low safety fine has been increased six-fold on appeal.
> First engineered stone dust death reported in Qld; > ICAC releases "learnings" from SafeWork SA probe; and > Relying on visual barrier results in multiple WHS charges.
> Ladder fall results in full arm amputation, $120k fine; > Work-related DV guide and patient-ratio Regs released; and > Free videos help injured workers prepare for treatment.
Two employers have been fined a total of $180,000 after a worker died falling 11 metres thorough a skylight, while a company has been handed a second round of fines for asbestos and document-request breaches, just five months after it and its two directors were fined $605,000 under environment laws.
> Workplace first-aid changes boost emergency response; > New WHS Code takes effect in NSW; > Alerts issued after Brazil disaster, other incidents; and > Vic amendments remove unsafe loophole for nursing.
