Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (NSW)

A court has slammed a major PCBU's piecemeal actions and lack of urgency in addressing significant WHS issues and closing out recommendations from safety audits, in the lead up to the death of a volunteer worker.

A PCBU has become the second entity to be convicted of a category-1 breach of the NSW WHS Act, after it recklessly allowed a number of "spectators" inside an exclusion zone to watch blasting work.

An appeals court has quashed the convictions of an engineer and his company, finding that while their failure to undertake computer modelling for a project constituted a WHS breach, the intervening acts of other PCBUs meant their omission could not be considered a "substantial and significant" cause of the relevant risk.

• New WHS guide targets vehicle roll-aways, driver distraction and more; and
  
• WHS exemptions explained by new SWA guidance.

Employers have been reminded that their duty to ensure the safety of their workers extends to "disobedient" staff, with a PCBU being fined over injuries sustained by a teenage trial worker who defied his supervisor's instructions. The supervisor was also charged over the incident, but acquitted.

• Defibrillators installed in 100 work vehicles, Tas updates COVID WHS tips;
  
• Site controller charged over customer's car wash death; and
  
• Entire supply chain targeted in vehicle safety campaign.

In a rare category-3 WHS case, a PCBU and its director have been convicted and fined after a balustrade at their site was removed by an unknown person, resulting in a worker sustaining serious fall injuries.

A major employer has entered an enforceable undertaking, with an estimated spend of up to $750,000, after being accused of fitness-for-work breaches and other contraventions relating to the death of a truck driver, whose vehicle crashed through a barrier and plummeted 13 metres.

A commission has revoked an improvement notice issued to a site's principal contractor, after a fatal fall, requiring it to review work systems installed by a specialist company.

• Prevention duties highlighted on launch of mental health strategy;
  
• Nearly $40m promised for underpaid injured workers;
  
• FWC's stop-s-xual-harassment regime commences; and
  
• WA releases another WHS guide, as SWA fixes HCIS errors.