Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd has been found guilty of engaging in unlawful discriminatory conduct against an elected health and safety representative during the emergence of COVID-19, with a judge ruling that consultation failings on the HSR's part did not invalidate his cease-work directions or help Qantas's defence.
A major employer could have identified and eliminated a "blind spot" in its WHS systems by proactively seeking to improve its processes, a judge has ruled in sentencing the company.
A PCBU that delegated its duty to enforce safety measures to a contractor, despited hearing that the circumstances at the relevant job site were a "nightmare", has been fined $300,000 over a worker's seven-metre fall.
A PCBU has failed to overturn its fatality-related WHS conviction in an appeals court, in a case demonstrating the key role that updating safety documents to reflect new practices plays in preventing incidents.
A PCBU has successfully challenged the size of its penalties for failing to comply with WHS notices, with a court finding the fines were too severe given the company "took significant steps" and spent a lot of money attempting to achieve compliance.
A PCBU has been fined $540,000 over a worker's death, after unsuccessfully seeking to reduce its penalty by arguing its electrical safety breaches did not cause the electrocution.
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.
A union investigating suspected violence- and workload-related WHS contraventions failed to comply with requirements of the WHS Act and Regulation when it sought employee records while exercising its entry rights, a commissioner has found.
A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount fine of $400,000 for failing to provide an apprentice, who fell four metres at the home of the PCBU's director, with adequate supervision, a fall protection system, or any working at heights training.
A large employer has been found guilty of WHS offences, after a court rejected its claims that a worker was struck by falling 700kg objects because she deliberately breached a work practice passed on through a buddy system.
