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A local council has failed to avoid prosecution over the drowning deaths of a father and son by claiming it was wrongly charged under WHS legislation.

A giant global oil and gas services company has failed in its renewed bid to have its workers' compensation industry classification changed, in a move that could have slashed its premiums by more than 60 per cent.

A worker was distracted by the death of a colleague, and fatigued from 26 consecutive days of work, when he was "cleared" as "fit" by an unqualified counsellor to perform a dangerous loading task, and then killed in an exclusion zone, a coronial inquest has found.

This major user-friendly report looks back at all the major and most interesting workplace safety and compensation developments from the start of the calendar year, including the ministerial vote on industrial manslaughter, multiple manslaughter charges, the widespread introduction of new psychosocial risk regulations, and a major WHS case involving the deaths of overseas students.

An organisation's WHS risk manager breached safety laws by failing - over a period of more than three years - to finalise a risk assessment for an infectious disease, a prosecutor has revealed.

• Employers alerted on risk-eliminating controls after fatality; and
  
• Employer failing to ensure guarding was as difficult as possible to bypass charged.

A range of WHS Codes and amendments, covering psychosocial hazards and other issues, have taken effect in two jurisdictions, while certain WHS exemptions have been reapplied in one of them, and duty holders in a third jurisdiction have been warned that driver-distraction cameras have been "switched on".

A teacher threatened with violence on multiple occasions has won an injury compensation dispute, with a commission stressing, in a scathing judgment, that her claims should never have been contested by authorities.

• Dog-attack death triggers call for high-level WHS controls; and
  
• Transitional arrangements for HSRs expiring under WA's WHS Act.

A worker has lost her appeal for compensation for a major depressive disorder, with a commission questioning her honesty and the evidence of her witnesses, including a relative who was not forthcoming about her connection to the worker.