Browsing: Contractors | Page 4

A PCBU has successfully fought off allegations that it used false or misleading information to obtain an authorisation for a high-risk job and to disguise who was really performing the work.

An employer is creating mutually respectful relationships between workers and clients with initiatives such as a code of conduct for the latter, to curb the psychological harm from escalating customer aggression, its general manager of people and culture says.

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.

A commission has refused a worker stop-bullying orders in a case providing "lessons" on change management failures, which previously led to an organisation losing an adverse action case and being handed a $12,000 penalty.

Measures for preventing workplace fatigue range from providing appropriate staffing levels to digitally locking out workers, according to WHS lawyers, who warn the issue is dangerously overlooked in many organisations, and highlight a safety prosecution that reads like a "how-to" guide to tackling fatigue.

A company charged with safety breaches, after a subcontractor who didn't realise he was working at height dropped a tool 40 metres down a shaft onto another worker, has committed to spending more than $240,000 on safety undertakings.

A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount fine of $600,000 for its "wholly inadequate" safety systems, which involved directing two inexperienced workers to perform a high-risk chemicals task, and left them with serious burns from an explosion.

• Falling-object prosecution avoided through EU; and
  
• New Code covers WHS and electricity compliance in WA.

Two companies have been ordered to pay a total of more than $1.2 million in damages to a worker who slipped and fell 10 metres from an access ladder that didn't comply with Australian Standards.

A PCBU's feeble attempt to install edge protection after scaffolding was removed, at one of its sites, led to a worker sustaining traumatic fall injuries, and warranted a pre-discount fine of $320,000, a court has found.