WHS entry permit holders are permitted, from today, to photograph or film suspected safety contraventions at ACT workplaces, under a Bill that also adopts $500,000 "prohibited asbestos" fines and amends workers' compensation laws.
James Hardie has been ordered to pay for expensive, advanced immunotherapy treatment for a mesothelioma sufferer, in a landmark case setting a "significant precedent" for future damages awards for workplace victims and others.
An "unprepared" company director has pleaded guilty to failing to exercise due diligence to ensure her company complied with its WHS duties, after a young worker was hospitalised with burns, while an asbestos assessor's licence has been suspended for issuing clearance certificates to sites littered with debris.
An employer has been ordered to pay more than $230,000 in fines and costs, after a man working in inadequate lighting was killed by mobile equipment with unlabelled emergency shutdown and operation switches. Meanwhile, a regulator has issued a safety warning following the latest of a series of work-related quad bike deaths.
A Federal Circuit Court case has re-highlighted the significant safety issue of new products containing asbestos being imported and used in Australian workplaces, potentially exposing workers to the deadly substance in their day-to-day tasks.
In a significant development, given the recent safety scandals involving the importation and use of asbestos-containing materials, the model WHS Act has been amended to make it mandatory for regulators to issue notices when they believe "prohibited asbestos" is present at a workplace, with maximum fines of $500,000 for those that fail to comply with a notice.
A regulator has alerted workers to their WHS duties pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak, while a local council has committed some $2 million to safety improvements and enforceable undertakings after being accused of failing to prepare asbestos registers and other WHS breaches.
