Browsing: Authority/inspectorate (VIC)

• Strict COVID-19 notification rules scrapped in Vic; and
  
• Presumptive COVID protections flagged for SA.

A company that did not have a process to help workers raise concerns over inappropriate behaviour has been fined for safety offences, after its director bullied an injured worker through aggressive text messages and an unannounced visit to her home. In another case, a director has been fined for reversing a forklift into one of his employees.

A major employer that admitted a worker was performing a hazardous task in accordance with his training when he sustained fatal injuries has been charged with multiple workplace safety breaches, after a union-requested review. The union said the move sent important messages to the company and its personnel.

An employer has been found guilty of safety breaches and fined $400,000 over the death of a lone worker, for failing to provide a two-person rule and "another set of eyes" to warn of dangers and help in emergencies.

Labour-hire companies can face sanctions for forcing workers or job applicants to pay for mandatory personal protective equipment, while hosts can be held liable as accessories to certain breaches, a regulator has warned.

An engineering company that failed to properly supervise the decommissioning work it was engaged to oversee has been fined $300,000 over a death in a shipping container. Another company has been fined heavily for providing workers with woeful advice on respirators, and exposing them to hazardous substances.

• Confined-space breaches endanger apprentice, employer fined; and
  
• SWA releases RTW survey results, Qld issues fall alert.

• 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.

The new notification rules introduced in Victoria require employers to report incidents involving "serious" rather than "immediate" health and safety risks, in a change that captures "near misses" and better aligns the provisions with those in the national model WHS Act, tabled documents have shown.

Employers will be required to report safety "near misses" and incidents involving infectious diseases to a workplace safety regulator, under new Victorian laws that also increase the benefits available to workers with silicosis and similar conditions.