Injured Odco contractor not an "employee"; Unions call for removal of all asbestos as WorkSafe ACT shuts down worksites; and Cancer comp laws for firefighters one step closer.
Victorian employer Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd, which was fined $100,000 after the death of an offsite contractor, has been granted leave to appeal to the High Court over the issue of "control".
Victorian employer Baiada takes OHS "control" dispute to High Court; Worker exposed to asbestos three times awarded $1.15 million; Qld employer fined for insulation death as WA commences switchroom campaign; and ACT regulator publishes guide to Workplace Privacy Act.
A Western Australian contractor has been handed a record-equalling workplace health and safety fine over the January 2008 prison-van death of the Aboriginal elder, Mr Ward.
Commonwealth to ban synthetic cannabis detected in workers; WorkSafe Victoria to target employers without workers' comp cover; and Western Australian employers fined for electricity and notice breaches.
In this article, OHS Alert reports on high-risk licences, fatality reports, safety alerts, contractor guidelines that will apply from 1 July, and other OHS news from across the country.
Employers should, from January 2012, urge contractors to conduct risk assessments for every task, even if they are not obliged under harmonised work health and safety laws to do so, OHS lawyer Jacqui Hawkins told attendees at a recent webinar.
A crane driver left tetraplegic after falling 1.5 metres to the ground has failed to prove his accident, which he cannot remember and no one saw, was caused by the negligence of any of the four companies operating at a Western Australian Goldfields site.
In a case that highlights the risk of giving inappropriate instructions to subcontractors, a NSW employer that directed a non-employee to work in a "no go zone" has been fined $180,000, after he was killed by a moving vehicle.
