Browsing: WHS decisions (SA) | Page 2

A court has stressed the importance of employers instilling a "safety consciousness" in young workers, in sentencing a PCBU whose safety breaches brought "shock, trauma, ongoing pain and disfigurement" to a teenage worker in an instant.

A PCBU has unsuccessfully challenged its WHS conviction and $600,000 fine for failing to engage experts to assess the design of new leased plant, which fatally crushed a worker.

Three companies subjected to WHS improvement and prohibition notices relating to ride restraints have lost their appeals against a recent decision to maintain the notices. A tribunal full bench acknowledged errors in the initial decision, but found safety remained the higher priority.

Three companies subjected to WHS improvement and prohibition notices relating to ride restraints have failed to stay the operation of the notices, with a tribunal finding the potential loss of revenue does not outweigh the safety risks.

A superior court has quashed a decision acquitting a worker of recklessly contributing to a fatal crushing, ruling that the requisite test for a guilty verdict was whether the worker foresaw it was possible, rather than probable, that a death would occur.

A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount penalty of $300,000, after its "unexplained disregard" for guarding requirements led to the amputation of five of a teenage worker's fingers. Meanwhile, a repeat offender's latest safety fines have been increased significantly, after a regulator appealed.

A court has warned against undertaking "cursory" safety inspections for height work, in finding a PCBU's WHS breaches, relating to a fatal fall, warranted a $500,000 penalty.

A PCBU has been fined $134,000, and it two directors $33,000 each, for failing to "comply with their basic obligations", after a young worker was pinned under 1.2 tonnes of steel sheets when parts of a structure collapsed.

A PCBU failed to take straightforward measures that would have protected a worker from being attacked by a client known to be violent, a tribunal has found in convicting the duty holder.

Two PCBUs have been convicted and fined a total of nearly half a million dollars after a labour-hire worker died of traumatic head injuries, with a court stressing that consultation failings represented a lost opportunity for identifying safety deficiencies.