Safe Work Australia has launched an interactive tool to help PCBUs understand when and how to use safe work method statements, which must be utilised for at least 18 types of high-risk construction work.
Employers that operate heavy vehicles have been "challenged" to review and overhaul their fatigue management systems, after a company's national operations manager was sentenced to three years' jail for recklessness that led to the deaths of four police officers.
The "palpable" difference in a worker's wrist symptoms between home and work showed her workplace computer duties caused her pain response and significantly contributed to her tendonitis linked to a congenital condition, a tribunal has ruled.
A tribunal has granted a regulator access to an injured worker's medical records from 13 different entities, finding her objections around privacy were understandable but outweighed by other considerations.
A major government employer has been fined $600,000 over a train fatality and injuries that occurred in circumstances where drivers had a restricted view, and that triggered mandatory reviews of safety systems for a high-risk procedure.
Safe Work Australia has committed to immediately drafting changes to the national model WHS laws to reflect the outcomes of yesterday's WHS ministers meeting on engineered stone and other issues. The non-harmonised state of Victoria will make similar changes to its safety legislation.
Australia's WHS ministers have unanimously agreed to prohibit the use, manufacture and supply of engineered stone, under a plan that will be matched with a "complementary customs prohibition" on the material, and new WHS laws for all industries where crystalline silica is present.
The efforts, or lack thereof, of employers to comply with their positive duty to proactively prevent s-xual harassment will be actively scrutinised by at least one more regulator from today, with the Australian Human Rights Commission's new powers taking effect.