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.
Employers have been urged to identify all powerlines at their workplaces, including around entry and exit points, after a company was convicted and fined over an electrocution. Employers have also been warned about the presence of asbestos in workplace fire doors, following exposure incidents.
Lawyers have urged companies to keep on top of emerging evidence on the effects of medicinal cannabis on workers and testing regimes, outlining a wide range of challenges in this area. Meanwhile, Victorian stakeholders have just weeks left to contribute to a parliamentary inquiry into workplace drug tests.
An employer drove a pregnant worker to resign with its persistent and unreasonable insistence that she had to attend an independent medical examination (IME) before it could provide her with a "safe job", a commission has found, paving the way for her to seek an unfair dismissal remedy.
Two employers have been fined a total of nearly $300,000 over machine entrapment incidents, including a major company that failed to assess the competency of its workers in safety procedures.