In a long-running case, an engineering company has been convicted and fined $250,000 for failing to ensure two workers were actively supervised while they helped a crane perform decommissioning work at another company's site.
An employer that was effectively forced, by a judge's erroneous ruling on a fatality, to plead guilty to breaching regulations for high-risk work, has been fined $420,000 after a retrial, saving it $430,000 in penalties.
An employer fined $400,000 over the death of a lone worker has lost its appeal against its conviction and sentence, with a court affirming it was open to a jury to conclude the company should have implemented a two-person rule for a dangerous task.
A major employer has been fined $180,000 for failing to require workers to wear respiratory protective equipment, and other omissions, at a site where an administrative employee developed silicosis. A union described the penalty as "loose pocket change" that won't deter unsafe practices.
An employer has been fined $350,000 after a jury found it guilty of offences relating to a fatal instruction to work in the dark. Meanwhile, a utility company has been fined over a degloving incident, and two organisations have been charged after a child drowned.
An employer breached it legislative safety duties, in the lead up to the death of a manager, by failing to instruct a supplier to pack containers in a manner that allowed them to be emptied safely, a court has ruled. Meanwhile, Australian companies have been urged to take a more ethical approach to their supply chains, on the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster.
The workplace safety fine imposed on a company in relation to a triple road fatality has been increased by nearly 70 per cent, with an appeals court majority finding its "failure to adopt a more rigorous testing regime" for vehicle components involved a "significant departure" from its duty to non-workers.