A full Federal Court has upheld two decisions denying compensation to a worker who was injured at the end of an eight-hour dinner-and-drinks session with a colleague on a work trip, but suggested it was a "borderline" case that could have gone the worker's way at first instance.
A labour-hire company and a host employer have both been fined for safety failures relating to unguarded plant, with a court outlining the measures the former could have taken to prevent an injury and prosecution.
An employer has been found liable for a worker's psych injury because it "blindsided" him with a redundancy meeting shortly after he returned to work from long-term sick leave, during which he was induced to be believe his job was secure.
* New Comcare team to target major infrastructure projects; * COVID-related workers' comp clause extended in NSW; and * Mobile phone crackdown coming to Vic.
An employer has unsuccessfully challenged a $2.5 million injury damages bill relating to work road maintenance failures. An appeals court rejected its claim that the injured worker was contributorily negligent in failing to satisfy the "high" duty of care owed by drivers.
A PCBU that failed to issue safety directions to a subcontractor has been fined $500,000 over the death of a labour-hire worker, bringing the total penalties for the incident to nearly $1 million.
Employment laws will be amended to define workplace s-xual harassment as "serious misconduct" and prevent ongoing harassment through stop-bullying orders, with the Federal Government agreeing wholly or partly to all 55 recommendations of S-x Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' Respect@Work report.
It is well known that chemical accidents can expose workers to hazardous irritants, but employers need to be aware that exposure often occurs during everyday "controlled" tasks, a study of 18 years' data on occupational asthmas has shown.
A PCBU has committed to completely digitising its permit-to-work system to strengthen its effectiveness as a critical control for non-standard work, while a second PCBU will audit its mobile plant and traffic management plans across multiple sites, in response two serious safety incidents.
