Browsing: Jurisdiction (VIC) | Page 5

The sentencing regime for workplace health and safety offences could be amended to ensure penalties have a "real economic impact" on large companies, and to enable imprisonment for more types of offences, under changes flagged by Victoria's Sentencing Advisory Council.

• Missing signage and access issues among multiple chemical breaches; and
  
• Draft safety laws include mandatory jail for most offenders.

A worker has unsuccessfully claimed he was unfairly sacked for raising safety concerns, with a commission hearing a safety regulator investigated and dismissed his concerns, and finding he was sacked for being unable to perform the inherent requirements of his role.

A worker has been convicted of safety breaches that caused a colleague to become crushed between two vehicles and sustain life-threatening injuries, with a court finding he should have been aware of the danger his co-worker was in.

• Work-related fire risks must be monitored under national system;
  
• WHS amendments followed by WHSQ review; and
  
• OHS amendments create new licence in Vic.

The attitudes of workplace health and safety representatives towards the "momentous" legislative changes creating new duties for psychosocial risks will be crucial to the successful implementation of the laws, a study has found.

The final quarter of 2023 was marked by wholesale WHS changes affecting all duty holders. This report examines the amendments, as well as changes to other laws and all the need-to-know caselaw from the period.

• Regulator sends $16.2m warning to unsafe employers; and
  
• Toll faces $2m-plus in safety fines after airport incident.

Employers that operate heavy vehicles have been "challenged" to review and overhaul their fatigue management systems, after a company's national operations manager was sentenced to three years' jail for recklessness that led to the deaths of four police officers.

• Category-3 fine of $100k imposed after notices ignored; and
  
• New workers' comp regulations coming to Vic.