Browsing: Jurisdiction (WA) | Page 7

• Falling-object prosecution avoided through EU; and
  
• New Code covers WHS and electricity compliance in WA.

An appeals court has criticised an employer's attempts to block an incapacitated worker's injury claim after his first claim was stymied by a technicality, saying it would be "perverse" to accept the employer's arguments and calling on decision makers to respect the objectives of compensation laws.

A government employer failed to have proper regard to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare system when it refused to authorise a worker's sick leave, a court has found.

A worker's "cruel and menacing" comments about a co-worker, in a private Teams chat with a third colleague, posed a "serious and imminent risk to the safety of the co-worker", a commission has ruled.

• High Court's urination ruling provides "comfort" to multiple sectors; and
  
• Executives reminded of harassment-reporting duties with new projects.

• Safety officer's brother gets 20 months' jail;
  
• Breakthrough heat study should inform WHS practices, says Monash; and
  
• PTSD-presumption laws further amended in WA.

A superior court has highlighted the necessity, under safety laws, to match high level engineering controls with "robust" training and active supervision, in finding an employer's $20,000 safety fine was manifestly inadequate, and ordering that it be resentenced.

• Employers baffled by large injury premium hikes; and
  
• Upselling "scam" breached electrical safety laws.

In this major must-read report, OHS Alert examines all the key workplace health and safety and workers' compensation developments from the second quarter of 2023, including a wide range of actual and proposed WHS amendments, a string of high-profile safety prosecutions, and concerns around surging burnout rates.

A court has affirmed that lump sum death benefits must be paid to the wife of a killed worker, rejecting the employer's claim the couple had been separated for two years and she was no longer dependent on his income.