Browsing: WHS decisions (NSW) | Page 69

A NSW employer that failed to properly calibrate a safety device has been fined nearly $300,000, after a mobile crane fell onto live powerlines and crashed into a house, narrowly missing residents and nearly electrocuting a worker.

Two NSW employers that allowed standing on a moving conveyor to become a "routine process" have been fined a total of $200,000, after a worker suffered shocking leg injuries.

A NSW employer that failed to complete an OHS management plan - because its OHS and production managers were too busy - has been fined $160,000, after the OHS manager was killed in an incident involving an unsafe forklift.

In a horrific case that illustrates the "grave risk" of conducting hot work near a fuel source, a NSW employer has been fined $200,000 after a worker surrounded by flames jumped nine metres to his death.

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.

A NSW principal contractor that failed to secure a site has been fined $250,000, following a horror incident in which a man walking his dog fell headfirst into a two-metre-deep pier hole and died of asphyxiation.

The TWU has failed to convince a NSW court that saliva swabs are more appropriate than urine samples for testing drivers for drug and alcohol impairment.

A new decision from the NSW Industrial Court should ring alarm bells for directors of all companies, regardless of how remote they are from day-to-day work practices. The Court, in finding that the CEO of a large multi-national company was guilty of an OHS offence, also criticised the common reliance by directors on "alternative" defences to their charges.