Safe Work Australia's deemed diseases list has been amended to add two cancer and job exposure pairs, and to remove COVID-19, on the basis that the virus "has become so widespread in the community that infection in a particular occupational setting cannot be confidently assumed to have been due to that occupation".
A company with an entirely remote workforce supports its workers' wellbeing by paying for them to get out of the house and ensuring their designated contactable hours are respected regardless of what time zone they are in.
Australia's WHS and workers' compensation ministers have agreed to: work towards a major asbestos-removal plan targeting commercial buildings; implement WHS provisions to further crack down on silica risks; and reinstate the push for a national approach to protecting the psychological safety of first responders.
Psychosocial risk management needs to occur on multiple levels of a company, but "on the ground is where this stuff counts", Deloitte Australia's chief human resources officer says.
Occupational and environmental health researchers have identified a range of workplace safety measures and regulations that could explain their findings that the rate of work-related injuries from fire or smoke has declined over the past two decades, while the non-work-related rate has gone up.
Lifestyle changes brought by the shift to working from home are causing the health of many workers to deteriorate, likely through the reduction of the physical effort involved in commuting, and increased snacking, a study of nearly 4,000 workers shows.
Unions have stressed that reproductive health conditions like endometriosis are WHS matters, in applauding new reproductive health leave entitlements announced yesterday.
A recent ruling upholding the sacking of a worker, who failed to disclose a longstanding health issue, shows that holding employees to account for complying with their own health and safety duties forms part of an employer's obligations, a senior safety and employment lawyer says.
Employers have been urged to create proper onboarding programs for new managers, and give them the skills to manage up, with a large proportion of new middle managers being unprepared for their responsibilities and experiencing burnout.
