A major logistics employer should have been more transparent with a group of shift managers who expressed safety concerns when they were asked to step into stevedoring roles during an industrial dispute, a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding the reinstatement of all six managers.
A PCBU that declined to act on the safety advice of an electrician has been convicted and fined for three serious WHS offences, including failing to consult and coordinate activities with the company tasked with installing and commissioning its imported plant.
Employers have been reminded of the stringent safety laws that apply to electrical equipment, after a company was fined for allowing such equipment to be tested by unlicensed staff.
A coronial inquiry into the death of a recently immigrated worker has highlighted the very real dangers faced by inexperienced workers and posed by power tools, particularly tools with unsafe modifications or faults.
A PCBU's $504,000 enforceable undertaking has provided valuable insight into the wide range of workplace issues that attract the attention of WHS inspectors, including where staff smoke their cigarettes.
The Federal Court has in a rare ruling on reasonable additional hours found there were "obvious risks" in requiring a meat worker to put in 50-hour weeks while using knives and lifting heavy weights.
A judge has revealed her reasons for imposing a high-level penalty on an employer when she re-sentenced it after quashing its gross negligence conviction. She rejected the company's claim it had believed certain labour-hire workers provided to its site were well trained and fully inducted in safety issues.
