A company accused of failing to ensure a hazardous task was performed at a safer time of the day, or under floodlights, has been fined $250,000 over the death of a jockey, in a case highlighting the breadth of workplace health and safety laws.
A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount penalty of $300,000, after its "unexplained disregard" for guarding requirements led to the amputation of five of a teenage worker's fingers. Meanwhile, a repeat offender's latest safety fines have been increased significantly, after a regulator appealed.
A company has been found guilty of safety breaches and fined $400,000, over a high-profile incident where a large bucket of concrete fell from a crane and killed a man working below the suspended load. Another employer has been fined $300,000 after a worker was struck by a forklift.
A worker injured by s-xual harassment has won her appeal against her low damages award of $10,000, with a superior court describing the amount as "derisory" in an important decision on what constitutes serious harassment.
Three employers have been fined a total of nearly $1.5 million over an explosion and a structural collapse, including one company that failed to ensure customers transported dangerous goods in a safe manner, and a business that failed to properly instruct personnel on an unfamiliar work procedure.
A Melbourne business and its directors have been fined, and a worker compensated, after the worker claimed he was subjected "to unreasonable health and safety risks because of his race" and unfairly sacked.