Three companies and a supervisor have been fined a total of more than $2.1 million over two serious mine safety incidents, including one where the supervisor removed warning signs from a hazardous area just moments before a worker was killed there.
A company director and three PCBUs, including an importer, have been handed pre-discount WHS fines totalling $1.25 million, after a worker suffered finger amputations on a machine previously shut down by a regulator.
A company director has been convicted and fined for a string of "disturbing" acts of bullying against two apprentices, including at a work Christmas party. A court found his company's safety failings were solely attributable to him.
A new worker sustained an amputation injury after receiving a five-minute training session on a hazardous machine with an out-of-reach emergency stop button, a court has found in fining her employer.
Workplace safety is not a "grey area" and needs to be practised until it becomes the culture, workplace injury survivor and safety advocate Candace Carnahan has told the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, in Sydney.
A worker who became the sole director of a company in mysterious circumstances, and played no role in its running, has been fined $120,000 for breaching his WHS due diligence duties, after a teenage apprentice fell 12 metres.
A Victorian company that pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering an apprentice, while he was being supervised by the company director, has been fined $2.1 million - a penalty that is more than double the State's previous record safety fine for a single offence.
A court has thrown out an injured worker's claim that two duty holders should have provided him with a walk-around induction, and marked all trip hazards with fluorescent paint, at a 1.7km-long work site.
A six-week "physical induction" to get new workers into the right condition to perform their role safely is one critical part of Australia Post's "endeavour" to prevent "predictable" injuries.
Two related companies, and a director who s-xually harassed teenage employees, have been fined a total of $290,000 for workplace safety breaches, with their failings including the absence of a specific reporting process in their online bullying and harassment policy.