Browsing: Jurisdiction (QLD) | Page 1

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

• PCBU accused of breaching duties to killed student and others; and
  
• WHS stone ban clarified in Qld.

• Director breached due diligence duties for 18 months;
  
• Decriminalisation Bill improves WHS standards in Qld; and
  
• Social media post exposes workers' comp fraud.

A WHS prosecutor has successfully argued that the failure of workers to abide by safety procedures should not have influenced a sentencing magistrate to impose a low penalty in a case involving a six-metre fall.

An injured worker has failed in his appeal for damages, unsuccessfully contending his employer had a duty to warn him to keep his hands free so he could use a handrail on a set of "inherently dangerous" steps.

Employers will be explicitly required to add "critical controls", as defined in international guidelines, to their safety management systems, under legislative amendments aimed at "facilitating the growth in high-reliability organisational (HRO) behaviour" in the resources sector.

Injured workers, and their employers, will be better protected from costly secondary psychological injuries by new provisions requiring insurers to actively provide early intervention services. The provisions are included in a Queensland Bill, which also creates Australia's longest list of cancers presumed, for workers' comp purposes, to be caused by firefighting duties.

The Fair Work Commission has declined to make orders in a rare decision from its stop-s-xual-harassment jurisdiction, but hinted that sending "vile" text messages to colleagues could attract such an order.

The jailing of an operations manager, the passage of right-to-disconnect laws and significant WHS and workers' compensation amendments were among the highlights of the first quarter of 2024. This major report covers all jurisdictions and looks at everything you need to know from the start of the year.

• WHS penalties increase significantly as ACT Bill passes; and
  
• HVNL amended by host jurisdiction.