An employer's multiple efforts to engineer out a safety risk failed to prevent a worker's serious crush injuries because of the absence of supplementary administrative controls, a court has found in fining the employer.
Three companies and a supervisor have been fined a total of more than $2.1 million over two serious mine safety incidents, including one where the supervisor removed warning signs from a hazardous area just moments before a worker was killed there.
A court has slated a national employer's inadequate inspections for wear, tear and corrosion, after a worker's legs dropped into and became trapped in moving machinery.
A company director and three PCBUs, including an importer, have been handed pre-discount WHS fines totalling $1.25 million, after a worker suffered finger amputations on a machine previously shut down by a regulator.
Two companies and a director have been ordered to pay more than $347,000 in damages to a worker, after a defectively welded and poorly inspected roller door component fell on the worker's head and caused serious long-term injuries.
A company that ignored a worker's requests for help to maintain equipment, forcing him to perform ad hoc fixes he wasn't qualified for, has been ordered to pay him damages after a machine part exploded in his face.
A new worker sustained an amputation injury after receiving a five-minute training session on a hazardous machine with an out-of-reach emergency stop button, a court has found in fining her employer.
An employer that required employees to access a machine by moving under it and opening heavy doors that swung down has been convicted and fined $200,000, after the doors fell and struck a worker, causing permanent brain injuries. Another employer has been fined for contraventions that included leaving keys in forklifts, facilitating unauthorised use.
Provisions for health and safety representatives and entry rights could be amended by a new Queensland WHS Bill, while a WHS blitz has found that every targeted business in one industry was breaching its health and safety obligations.