Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (VIC) | Page 5

• WHS minister reveals plan to push for engineered stone ban;
  
• Silica phase of "Clean Lungs" campaign launched; and
  
• Energy Australia Yallourn accused of more safety breaches.

A Victorian company that pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering an apprentice, while he was being supervised by the company director, has been fined $2.1 million - a penalty that is more than double the State's previous record safety fine for a single offence.

A company that was prosecuted, over a high-profile fatality, for breaching its safety duties as a supplier of plant, has unsuccessfully argued that its $400,000 penalty was excessive because it had no control over the location of workers when the incident occurred.

Workers' comp claims for "stress" and "burnout" are being axed in Victoria, with the State Government acting on its May 2023 plan to fix the "broken" compensation scheme by cutting benefits.

Two related companies, and a director who s-xually harassed teenage employees, have been fined a total of $290,000 for workplace safety breaches, with their failings including the absence of a specific reporting process in their online bullying and harassment policy.

Court Services Victoria (CSV) has been convicted and ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in penalties, in relation to a toxic workplace culture that contributed to the suicide death of a lawyer and to other workers taking stress leave.

Significant amendments were made to workplace health and safety laws in every Australian jurisdiction in the third quarter of 2023, including many increasing penalties and making it easier to prosecute duty holders. This major report - the only one of its kind in the country - examines all the need-to-know legislative changes, workers' compensation developments and court decisions from July, August and September.

An employer has been fined after failures in its communication protocols led to a client assaulting a worker, who should have been told the client had a history of inappropriate behaviour.

• One regulator charges another with recklessness after suicide;
  
• Host fined $350k over fatal impalement of labour-hire worker; and
  
• New national dangerous goods Code taking effect in Vic.

Employers have been urged to manage rosters and workloads in ways that reduce the risk of fatigue, after a second organisation was convicted over the car-crash death of a worker who had worked for 17 hours straight.