Browsing: WHS decisions (SA)

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.

In a case where "parallel" duty holders were charged over a worker's death, a PCBU has been found guilty of breaching WHS laws in relying on training and signage rather than engineering measures to control risks arising from new equipment with an unusual design.

The WHS failings of an individual with the duties of a PCBU included failing to label hazardous chemicals, leading to a fire that severely injured both himself and a client, a tribunal has heard.

A PCBU's lack of safety processes for preventing work being performed near overhead powerlines caused a worker to suffer "devastating" burns and lose both legs, a court has found in convicting the PCBU and its director.

A company and one of its directors have been fined, and handed a hefty decontamination bill, for embarking on a clean-up exercise that could have exposed hundreds of people to asbestos fibres. Meanwhile, a regulator has issued a warning to PCBUs following a "horror month" of nail gun incidents.

A PCBU has been convicted and handed a near-record WHS penalty over the mechanical asphyxiation death of a worker in plant, with a safety measure that was assumed to be effective but not tested.

A worker's $6 million adverse action claim has been rejected. He contended he was unlawfully sacked for protecting his own health and safety by refusing to work with cadavers emitting highly toxic fumes.

An appeals tribunal has quashed a $115,160 WHS discrimination damages award for a worker, who claimed she was bullied, after finding her expressions of "fear" and "anxiety" in communications to senior staff did not amount to raising a WHS issue or concern.

Administrative safety controls over-rely on workers' judgement, leave no room for inadvertence or inattention, and are "never enough" on their own, a court has found in convicting an employer over crush injuries.

• Inexpensive part could have prevented injuries and prosecution; and
  
• Dozens of high-risk work licensees require re-assessment.