Two employers have been sentenced for safety breaches resulting in life-changing amputations, including one company that failed to comply with an authorisation requiring only certain personnel to work near overhead powerlines.
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 company that was prosecuted, over a high-profile fatality, for breaching its safety duties as a supplier of plant, has unsuccessfully argued that its $400,000 penalty was excessive because it had no control over the location of workers when the incident occurred.
A major energy company that failed to implement an adequate visual inspection regime for power poles, and a business that failed to manage asphyxia risks, have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 over fatalities. Meanwhile, duty holders have been urged to assess the risk of heat-related illnesses, after an outdoor worker died in hot weather.
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 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.
