Browsing: Right of entry | Page 3

In this Q&A with OHS Alert, leading WHS lawyer John Makris warns that the practice of unlawfully leveraging safety issues for industrial purposes occurs across multiple sectors, and outlines 10 factors for employers to consider when determining whether WHS entry rights are being exercised properly.

A PCBU has been fined a total of $100,000, in the Federal Court, for unduly delaying and physically blocking WHS permit holders from entering a worksite to investigate suspected safety contraventions, including after the site was evacuated because of hazardous fumes.

A union and three of its officers have been fined a total of nearly $500,000 for unlawful industrial action at a site, which included persisting with a stop-work meeting after safety concerns, to do with lighting on a stairway, were dismissed by a safety regulator.

A union and two of its officials have been fined a total of $151,200 for refusing to provide entry permits on a $5.4 billion project, deliberately beaching the project's WHS requirements, and making patronising and homophobic slurs to a safety advisor.

In the latest chapter of a long-running and acrimonious dispute between an employer and a union, an appeals court has rejected the former's renewed claim that the latter is not eligible to enter its premises to investigate suspected WHS contraventions.

Two union organisers who intentionally obstructed work over safety concerns - including the location of toilets - were in breach of the Fair Work Act, the Federal Circuit and Family Court has ruled, finding none of their imminent-risk concerns were valid.

The fines imposed on a union organiser and his organisation after the official refused to wear safety gear at a site, and "pushed" a manager, have been slashed on appeal, with a full Federal Court finding a regulator "prosecuted a factually confused case".

Two companies have been charged, within a matter of days, in relation to separate but very similar fatalities involving shipping containers and stone slabs. Meanwhile, a union official has been accused of unlawfully ignoring a workplace's COVID-19 rules and safety signage.

In the latest major case on a WHS provision for "resolving" disputes, a union and eight of its officials have been fined for right-of-entry breaches at an incident-strewn infrastructure project.

• Major safety Bill passes without photograph amendments; and
  
• SWA and regulator tackle deadly risk with WHS guide and alert.