Browsing: WHS decisions (QLD) | Page 5

A local government worker who was accused of breaching safety guidelines, and possibly WHS laws, has failed to overturn his dismissal for operating plant in a reckless manner and showing little concern for his own and others' safety.

A WHS prosecutor has been given the green light to pursue a business that was charged with recklessly causing a patron's death, but is now in liquidation, with a court finding the case isn't blocked by corporations laws.

A PCBU and its director have failed to overturn their WHS recklessness penalties of $500,000 and suspended jail time, with a superior court highlighting the director's failure to exercise due diligence and his high moral culpability.

In a WHS case involving the deaths of two teenage students from overseas, a court has imposed a penalty much higher than that recommended by the prosecution, stressing that unlike workers, children are particularly vulnerable to business-related hazards because they haven't been trained to recognise or mitigate risks.

The Federal Court has rejected claims by union officials that they genuinely believed they did not need right-of-entry permits to enter a site for the purpose of "resolving" WHS issues.

Employers could face increasing regulatory scrutiny where workplace fatalities or serious injuries occur, with a union pressuring government ministers to "get serious" about safety prosecutions. Meanwhile, a workplace supervisor has been fined over an induction incident.

Two companies have been ordered to pay a worker a total of nearly $1.4 million in damages, after she was injured operating a defective vehicle in an incident that could have been prevented through clearer stop-work instructions.

• "High reliability organisations" embrace "bad" safety news; and
  
• Shoddy electrician fined $100k after WHS referral.

The prosecutions of a PCBU and an officer have sent a reminder to other duty holders that they must proactively guard against acts of carelessness or inattentiveness, including by specialist contractors.

A commission has quashed a WHS notice alleging an organisation did not have an adequate assessment process to protect workers from the risk of violence.