Browsing: Equipment and plant

A PCBU that contended it had never witnessed or heard of the possibility of a sequence of events, which killed one of its workers on a National Broadband Network site, has been convicted and fined $250,000, after a judge agreed that "the likelihood of the risk occurring was low".

In a case highlighting the pitfalls of safety systems susceptible to human error, an employer has been convicted and fined $125,000 over an incident resulting, in part, from a worker's inability to hear a radio message.

A major employer has lost its latest bid to compel workers to undertake a new work procedure involving "incredibly" remote risks, in a case highlighting the onus on employers to show their processes can ensure safety "so far as is reasonably practicable".

An employer has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million in damages to a worker with white finger syndrome, for allowing him to operate machinery with dangerous vibration levels for far more hours per shift than advised by engineers and safety guidelines.

Victoria has announced its average workers' comp premium rate for 2021-22, set aside $550 million for injury support and prevention initiatives, and released a draft Compliance Code on the provision of safe workplace facilities, including toilets, lighting and amenities for employees without fixed worksites.

An employer breached safety Regulations and its duty of care to a worker through its "failure to know" about the broken equipment she needed to use, but it has dodged a damages bill of nearly $700,000.

A PCBU has been fined $240,000 for its "reckless" approach to dust control over a period of nearly seven years, which appears to have resulted in at least four workers developing the deadly lung disease silicosis.

A safety regulator has urged employers to review their operations to identify all "potential" confined spaces, and share a video produced in response to a double confined-space fatality, a record WHS fine and a court order.

• New OHS provisions announced for psych hazards in Vic; and
  
• Comcare to scrap plant rule under WHS Regulations.

An individual could be fined up to $1.2 million, after being charged with multiple WHS breaches relating to corroded critical components and an amusement ride incident that injured two passengers.