Provisions enabling the "aggregation of conduct" are being added to the ACT's WHS laws to deal with offences like reckless conduct, hindering inspectors and supplying incorrectly labelled chemicals, under a Bill that also significantly increases WHS penalties.
A worker has failed in her bid for compensation for a contentious disorder she claims was caused by work-related exposure to mould, although she was awarded some benefits for her allergic reaction to the biotoxin.
Research spanning 24 years has discovered an increased risk of death from dementia associated with workplace exposures that are also linked to heart and lung-related mortality, underscoring the need to minimise exposure incidents and levels.
Workplace safety professionals were among the first to foresee the extensive threats created by COVID-19, showing that involving them more in emergency decision-making can facilitate more effective responses for organisations and the community, an international study has found.
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.