Browsing: Industrial/employment issues | Page 1

Unions have stressed that reproductive health conditions like endometriosis are WHS matters, in applauding new reproductive health leave entitlements announced yesterday.

A recent ruling upholding the sacking of a worker, who failed to disclose a longstanding health issue, shows that holding employees to account for complying with their own health and safety duties forms part of an employer's obligations, a senior safety and employment lawyer says.

• Worker fined $55k for WHS omissions;
  
• Regulator targets psychosocial risks with videos for toolbox talks; and
  
• Burgeoning industry gets first WHS audit.

Employers have been urged to create proper onboarding programs for new managers, and give them the skills to manage up, with a large proportion of new middle managers being unprepared for their responsibilities and experiencing burnout.

A worker who was charged with the manslaughter of another worker, in a runaway-forklift incident, has been convicted and fined for a section-28 contravention of WHS laws, in a first-of-its-kind case highlighting the potential multifaceted consequences of safety failings.

A worker's failure to disclose to his employer that he had a longstanding physical limitation, and was suing the UK's National Health Service for causing the condition, constituted a breach of his duties under safety laws and provided a sound reason for his dismissal, a commission has found.

In a case examining PCBUs' disclosure obligations, a tribunal has rejected a request for risk assessments and other documents by four workers, who claimed they were the victims of WHS discrimination relating to their employer's COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Suspended Sydney Flames basketball coach Shane Heal's failed claim that he was targeted for exercising workplace rights has highlighted the factors that constitute a safety complaint under employment law.

Reporting a safety incident is as important as the incident itself, a commission has reaffirmed in ordering the reinstatement of a worker sacked for failing to report an allegedly unsafe driving incident. His failure to report was mitigated by the fact that his supervisor witnessed and recorded the event, the commission found.

A worker who was bullied and called a "s-x offender" by colleagues, after being charged with historical abuse offences, has been awarded compensation for a psychological injury, with a commission hearing the bullying included being excluded from Christmas functions, and dismissing the employer's reasonable action defence.