Browsing: Jurisdiction (QLD)

A worker's action in throwing a heavy object at an unlicensed plant operator was not the sole cause of the machine striking and injuring the worker, an appeals court has ruled in ordering the machine's owner to pay him damages.

• COVID vaccines mandated for multiple Qld sectors, visiting workers;
  
• Lightning-related WHS duties outlined after fatality; and
  
• WHS activities affected by COVID: major SWA report.

• Company directors still have little involvement in WHS matters despite industrial manslaughter developments; and
  
• Court to hear test case on worker's medicinal cannabis use.

• Industrial manslaughter Bill introduced to NSW Lower House;
  
• New solar safety Standard commences with transitional provisions; and
  
• Offshore laws with "modified" WHS provisions pass Parliament.

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.

In upholding two WHS improvement notices, a commission has stressed that a PCBU cannot delegate its duties around workplace facilities to a subcontractor, and found that one of the PCBU's submissions was "unsupported by the laws of physics".

In a rare move, a magistrate has published her reasons for sentencing a PCBU - for failing to ensure borrowed equipment satisfied WHS requirements - to assist future prosecutions.

An employer's "life-saving" field-based mental health program saw traditionally stoic workers accept a counsellor as just another "tradie", but with a set of skills to assist them overcome challenges.

A commission has ordered a large employer to compensate a worker it dropped "like a hot potato" as soon his workers' comp entitlements ceased, blasting its "disappointing and disturbing" failure to inform itself of its obligations to workers who can't work because of injury or illness.

Three PCBUs and a director that failed to comply with basic height and machine operation requirements have been handed penalties totalling more than $300,000, after workers sustained life-changing injuries.