A “Name and Shame” register has revealed poor food safety standards in numerous NSW businesses. Five councils – Blacktown, Sydney, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland and Parramatta – had the greatest number of food safety law breaches in the past six months. In it’s ninth year, the NSW Food Authority has released its “Name and Shame” register. The register…
A South Australian steel pipe manufacturing business has been convicted and fined $39,000 over an incident in which a worker’s foot was run over by a forklift. In October 2015, the worker was acting as a spotter while helping a forklift operator to move a steel pipe, when the incident occurred. Following an investigation by…
Do you know the difference between smoking versus vaping, and how it impacts your workplace? With the increased popularity of vaping and e-cigarettes, it is becoming important for businesses to have a clear company policy. Most workers are aware companies have policies around smoking. However, in a recent study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental…
A New Zealand company, and its Director, has been fined after a workplace accident left a worker a tetraplegic (otherwise known as quadriplegic).
Disregard for employee health and safety resulted in a total of NZ$386,300 (equivalent to over $360,000 Australian dollars) in fines and reparation.
SafeWork SA are preparing to audit residential aged care facilities in an effort to reduce the risk to workers due to injuries caused by manual handling tasks. During June and July, SafeWork SA’s inspectors will be out in force, ensuring compliance with work health and safety legislation. They will also be checking measures required to control the…
Do you work with Elevated Work Platforms (EWP)? If you answered yes, SafeWork SA has introduced new minimum standard of training for Elevated Work Platforms. In the wake of the tragic fatal incidents involving scissor lifts at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital construction site, new minimum standards have been introduced. Their aim is to reduce the…
A Victorian bakery has been fined $40,000 for breaching the 2004 OHS Act, for: Failing to provide and maintain safe plant, and Failing to provide appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision This came about after a worker’s fingertips were amputated by a machine filling pastries with custard. The machine places a set amount of custard…
A Bathurst earthworks business has been fined $90,000 for failing to comply with work health and safety legislation. Two workers were injured during excavation work, when the side walls of a trench they were working in collapsed. SafeWork NSW charged the business with breaching the WHS Act, for exposing workers to the risk of serious injury or…
Halon is a fire fighting agent that was introduced into Australia in the early 1970s. It quickly replaced many previously accepted fire fighting products because of its superior fire fighting characteristics and ease of use. However, Halon is also a potent ozone-depleting substance. Just one kilogram of Halon 1211 (usually found in hand held fire extinguishers) can…
Keeping with the theme of our last post, Volunteers in the Workplace, we thought it would be handy to focus on labour hire workers, including your responsibilities if you engage labour hire workers in your workplace. There has been a lot of attention over the past 18 months on the labour hire industry with inquiries being conducted…