A labour-hire company "induced or encouraged" a fly-in-fly-out worker to play the soccer game between shifts that injured him, a judge has confirmed, rejecting the company's claim that any inducement came from a third party and removed its liability.
A union and two of its officials have failed to overturn a ruling that they unlawfully obstructed work on a major project. They claimed the finding was erroneous because their conduct involved ensuring a PCBU was complying with its WHS duties.
The mother of a young worker impaled on a steel rod has been awarded more than $200,000 for post-traumatic stress linked to the incident, while her son has been awarded $520,000, and two negligent companies have been ordered to foot most of the bill.
A business owner who allegedly recklessly disregarded safety complaints at a work site could be jailed for decades, after being charged with the industrial manslaughter of a worker in a fall. Meanwhile, a regulator has released a workplace fatality toll including deaths from disease and suicide.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered an organisation's members to undergo anti-bullying training, to impress upon them what bullying is and its consequences for workers.
Employers are now expected to take greater ownership of the WHS challenges posed by global supply chain pressures and changing technologies - an expectation that will be enforced by regulators under Australia's new 10-year WHS strategy, which identifies six key emerging issues.
Employers in the highly hazardous mining sector could be compelled to adopt better leading indicators of safety performance, subjected to more unannounced regulatory inspections, and targeted by new laws aimed at protecting workers who raise safety concerns, under recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry.
Three employers have been fined a total of nearly $1.5 million over an explosion and a structural collapse, including one company that failed to ensure customers transported dangerous goods in a safe manner, and a business that failed to properly instruct personnel on an unfamiliar work procedure.
A principal contractor has been convicted and fined over an incident where two workers were injured in a fall from an excavator bucket - an event that has already attracted a high-level WHS penalty and elicited an industry-wide warning from a judge.
A judge has referred one of his WHS rulings to a government minister, to highlight the prevalence of deaths and serious injuries from height work, and possibly inform legislative change.
