Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has released a film to help executive officers understand their new obligations under national work health and safety laws, due to take effect on 1 January 2012. The new laws place an onus on CEOs, general managers and Board members to ensure steps are taken to support a positive health …
The Queensland Supreme Court has ordered two employers to pay more than $550,000 to a worker who was injured while taking a shortcut over a knee-high barrier chain. The Supreme Court found that the employers had failed to alert employees to a trip hazard and that there was no contributory negligence on the part of the …
According to the latest ‘Comparative Performance Monitoring Report’, compensated fatalities are exceeding national reduction targets, but injury claims are not. “The incidence of compensated fatalities from injury and musculoskeletal disorders decreased by 42 per cent from the base period to 2009–10,” the report said. “The national incidence rate has exceeded the 20 per cent reduction …
A roofing operator has been prosecuted for a fourth time, fined $18,000 and placed on a 12-month community-based order requiring him to attend an OHS safety course. The owner of the company operating in the Geelong region, pleaded guilty earlier this month to two charges of not providing fall protection under the Victorian OHS Act. …
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has issued a safety alert concerning the use of forklifts. Queensland has annually approximately 750 workers’ compensation claims involving forklifts, with almost 300 of these involving serious injury. Forklifts can be one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment in the workplace. A worker sustained head injuries in a recent …
Recognising excellence in the workplace with regards matters to health and safety, the Ministry of Industrial Relations has announced the winners of the Queensland Safe Work Awards for 2011. The announcement was done during a ceremony held last Wednesday, 26th of October, and was part of Safe Work Week observance. Cameron Dick, the Minister of …
There was a lot to hear, see and do at the Sydney Safety Conference & Show today – as there has been each day. Some of the topics covered today included the emerging area of managing mental health issues in the workplace; managing the long-term injured employee; and several small sessions looking at safety technologies …
The NSW Government has submitted an Amendment Bill to Parliament that changes the implementation date of the model Work Health and Safety Bill from January 1, 2012 to the ‘date of proclamation’ in that State. In doing so, NSW follows WA and Victoria in delaying the harmonisation of work health and safety laws. The NSW Government …
Work-related injuries and fatalities in Australia has significantly reduced, according to a report done by Safe Work Australia, which has just released its Comparative Performance Monitoring’s thirteenth edition. This report tackles health and safety concerns of workers in the country, as well as the compensation outcomes related to injuries, illnesses and deaths. The report covers …
A new workplace legislation, which Australia is adapting by January of next year, has been set and is aimed at harmonising Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws in order to manage and assess workplace risks more effectively. The new system makes workers’ safety a primary duty of its employers and adheres to the guideline: “To …
All in all, today was a much better collection of speakers, presentations and workshops. What are we to make of our workplace health and safety programs? The first keynote speaker, Professor Andrew Hopkins, of the Australian National University asked “What Are We to Make of Safe Behaviour Programs”? He talked at length about the fallacy of mono-causal …
A 49-year-old man suffered a crushed lung after being injured in a workplace accident in Melbourne’s west last week. The accident occurred while the man was operating a cherry picker machine in an Altona North factory and he became crushed between the cherry picker and a metal beam. When paramedics arrived, they found the man’s colleagues performing …
The 2011 Safety Conference in Sydney presented by the Safety Institute of Australia, got off to a great start today with a presentation by Dr Adam Fraser addressing the need to become fully engaged safety professionals in the workplace; and how our own behaviours can affect the behaviours of those around us. According to several participants it …
A construction worker has fallen after the scissor lift he was standing on fell 5m to the ground in Melbourne’s north. The man aged in his 40s was working on a scissor lift at Broadmeadows Shopping Centre, when the machinary failed. He is being treated for suspected spinal injuries at Royal Melbourne Hospital and is in …
West Australia government, through WorkSafe, is appealing a decision made by the courts that has resulted in the acquittal of the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) of 18 workplace safety violations. The charges stemmed from in incident in 2007 that killed two workers and injured many others. The prosecution stipulated that the dongas installed by the …
A worker for the Australian Agricultural Company who was assigned at its South Galway Station is reportedly recovering from injuries he sustained during a bushfire. The company’s spokesperson says that the worker has had severe burns that needed to be treated via surgery, specifically a skin graft operation. According to reports, he was operating a …
Melbourne County Court has fined a Victorian dairy products manufacturer $300,000 after a worker died when a one tonne bag of salt fell on him. The company pleaded guilty to unsafe storage practices. The forklift driver died at the Stanhope cheese factory in September 2009. The court said the system for stacking the salt bags was …
The Victorian Country court has sanctioned Fonterra Australia, a dairy foods manufacturer, with a $300,000 fine after it was revealed that the company has failed to set up a safe system that should have prevented the death of its 52-year old worker. The victim, John Harrap who works as a forklift operator, was found under …
Crushed by a truck and into a concrete panel, a 27-year-old worker was rushed from Melbourne to the Ballarat hospital for treatment. According to the investigation by WorkSafe, it was believed he was guiding the truck that was going on reverse, as it made its delivery of concrete panels. The worker is employed at a …
The Thirteenth Edition of the Comparative Performance Monitoring (CPM) has been released yesterday, according to SafeWork Australia. The report has data on Australia’s work health and safety concerns, as well as workers’ compensation outcomes for the year 2009 through 2010. It also breaks down the compensated rate of injury fatalities for that year. SafeWork Australia’s …
A building company has been fined $350,000 by the Melbourne County Court for the collapse of a warehouse steel frame, which killed one of its workers. The incident happened on the 2nd of April 2008 and the company, the Australand Industrial Constructions Pty Ltd, has pleaded guilty to the violation under the Occupational Health and …
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