Work-focused support programs can help workers with common mental disorders return to work, but employers should be aware of the ethical considerations arising from their use, researchers say.
The Federal Government has committed millions of dollars to enforcing the impending WHS ban on engineered stone at the border, and conducting a comprehensive review of the Commonwealth jurisdiction's workers' compensation laws, under a "safer workplaces" package in its 2024-25 budget.
Safe Work Australia's deemed diseases list has been amended to add two cancer and job exposure pairs, and to remove COVID-19, on the basis that the virus "has become so widespread in the community that infection in a particular occupational setting cannot be confidently assumed to have been due to that occupation".
A company with an entirely remote workforce supports its workers' wellbeing by paying for them to get out of the house and ensuring their designated contactable hours are respected regardless of what time zone they are in.
Australia's WHS and workers' compensation ministers have agreed to: work towards a major asbestos-removal plan targeting commercial buildings; implement WHS provisions to further crack down on silica risks; and reinstate the push for a national approach to protecting the psychological safety of first responders.
Psychosocial risk management needs to occur on multiple levels of a company, but "on the ground is where this stuff counts", Deloitte Australia's chief human resources officer says.
Occupational and environmental health researchers have identified a range of workplace safety measures and regulations that could explain their findings that the rate of work-related injuries from fire or smoke has declined over the past two decades, while the non-work-related rate has gone up.
A parliamentary inquiry into vulnerable road users - like pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists - has identified a number of occupations that fit into this category, and made 56 recommendations, including for the development of a "road user hierarchy system" to reverse a hazardous social norm.