My Blog Site

whsblog.com OHS and Safety

My Blog Site whsblog.com

Anything of interest to the OHS Committee in NSW,

People at work, Safety, Travel and anything quirky or funny.

Newsletters

From time to time we put together a newsletter about what is happening in the world of WHS in New South news Wales, Australia and the rest of the world.

Because WHS is so closely related to human resource management (HR) as well as Workers Compensation Insurance, any interesting stories relating to these topics are included.

Enjoy.

Alan

Contents

2021 - Q3

·        In house modification leads to guilty verdict.

·        Truckie driven to injury - awarded $967,000

·        Horseplay at work could prove to be very expensive

·        No compensation for a fall while socialising at work function.

·        Gig worker deemed to be an employee.

·        One minute late was sixty seconds too long

·        If you fail to comply with covid 19 policies, you can expect the consequences

·        First prison sentence in WA for a WHS offence.

·        Get dressed in the boss’ time

2021 - Q2

Failure to consult, cooperate and coordinate

Dishonesty has consequences

Qld reviews model WHS codes of practice

All WHS claims should be investigated

Are you at work when walking your dog

2021 - Q1

Belgian backpacker dies of heat stress

Appeal dismissed after Rugby player injured with unlawful tackle.

2020 - Q4

Motor accident on way home deemed to be work related

Love and leadership - a match not always made in heaven

Employers held responsible for domestic violence when staff work from home

Two food delivery riders killed in accidents in one week

2020 - Q3

Industrial manslaughter is now an offence in Victoria

2020 - Q2

Not the work place that is toxic but the uniforms are.
Employer's responsibility to avoid psychiatric injuries.
Misrepresentation by Union - near maximum penalty.

2020 - Q1

Changes to the NSW WHS legislation
Industrial manslaughter now a crime in Victoria
Sacked via text?
Sharing the blame
Can employers legally collect and store their employees' data?
Company ordered to provide training for senior staff

2019 - Q4

Don't stop the BBQ of a work mate and get a fine of $12,000.
Company fined £1,000,000 and employee gets 6 months custodial sentence in UK case
Foster carer is a volunteer worker
Spit-roast apprentice?......anybody?

2019 - Q3

Teacher's dismissal could not be discriminatory on the basis of the employer's religion or belief but was discriminatory on the ground of sex. UK.
Direct discrimination can occur when someone is treated less favourably because of religion or belief.
Slip on a grape - employer not liable
Fine for ignoring prohibition and improvement notices
Extra Curricular activity earns dismissal.
Cover up at scene of an accident.

2019 - Q2

Can you claim compensation for an injury that occurred before the start of your shift?
Don't get caught double dipping
Victorian business owner sent to jail for OHS offence.
Reinforcements needed at Queensland Hospital
Guilty for the actions of a subcontractor
Even SafeWork NSW can get it wrong.

2019-Q1

$1.3 Million dollar fine for death of worker
Britain still rules the Commonwealth in workplace safety standards
Is an Airbnb a workplace?
Turf growing company fined $375,000 after worker's death ?
Is an Airbnb a workplace?
Worker injured and pre existing conditions
$10 million undertaking issued against Education Directorate in ACT under the WHS act ACT 2011

2018-Q4

When are you at work
IRC decides that HSR's do not have a unilateral right to decide which training course they will attend
Hotel Housekeepers to wear panic buttons
"You will be the next one f***ing six feet under" not the best way to get results!
A horrible death - stuck in a lift for a month
Prosecution after army recruits injured in training
Terminated because of inability to do job

2018-Q3

Accident on way home was found to a connection to work - employee wins compensation.
If you give evidence, make sure that the court considers you to be reliable.
Can you be on a smoko and be at work at the same time?
First Category 1 offence in NSW.
Hospital guilty after a patient sexually assaults female patient. The risk was deemed to be foreseeable.
Can you be dismissed at the end of a fixed term contract
Can a comma be worth US$ 5,000,000.
Farting at work is not bullying
Royal Opera House made to face the music
Duty of care to the parties with whom their sub-contractors may interact

2018-Q2

New South Wales is the first Australian state to test drivers for cocaine use
Can a director be the victim of bullying?
Horseplay at work leads to serious injury and $800k fine.
Company cops a $1,000,000 Fine

2021 Q1

2021 Q2
Recent WHS cases in Australia

2021 Q3

2020 Q4

2020 Q3

2020 Q2

2020 Q1

2019 Q4

2019 Q3

2019 Q2

2019 Q1

2018 Q4

2018 Q3

2018 Q2

2018 Q1

2017 Q4

September 2017

August 2017

July 2017

June 2017

OHS and safety blog

Newsletter

◦	2021 Q1
◦	2021 Q2
◦	2021 Q3
◦	2020 Q4
◦	2020 Q3
◦	2020 Q2
◦	2020 Q1
◦	2019 Q4
◦	2019 Q3
◦	2019 Q2
◦	2019 Q1
◦	2018 Q4
◦	2018 Q3
◦	2018 Q2
◦	2018 Q1
◦	2017 Q4
◦	September 2017
◦	August 2017
◦	July 2017
◦	June 2017

I Speak My Mind

◦	Do you drop your dacks at work
◦	Whats for breakfast
◦	Go Home. Stop those long overtime hours
◦	Benifits of Booze
◦	Stop Laughing and start living
◦	Don’t become a victim of the ‘Streisand Effect’
◦	Tell the boss to turn-it-down
◦	Coffe, Cancer and Chaos
◦	Weddings should be banned
◦	The Laws of the Universe - or Murphy was an Optomist
◦	Is it time to tell the boss to get ..........

The Law - Act, Regulations, Codes of Practice

Case studies - WHS through the cases - Australia

◦	Jail plus $1m fine
◦	Category 1 offence
◦	$1.3m penalty for death of a worker
◦	$10m Undertaking
◦	Farting at work
◦	Playing cricket is work
◦	Chain of command
◦	Accident on way home was found to a connection to work
◦	Worker impaled by reinforcing bar
◦	Unfair Dismissal at end of fixed term contract
◦	Sexual assault in hospital
◦	First_cat_1_Offence_in_NSW
◦	Record NSW WHS Penalty
◦	Who is Engaged as a Worker?
◦	Record Victorian penalty
◦	When are you at work?
◦	Fall at work. $688,000 compensation
◦	Record penalty against businessman for underpayment
◦	Rise in manslaughter cases
◦	Ladder use - training not required
◦	Make sure that your defence team knows the right numbers
◦	Telling a ‘porky’ won’t bring home the bacon
◦	Employment agency not vicariously liable
◦	Tourist dies whilst on tour in Northern Territory
◦	The cost of failing
◦	Suspended gaol term
◦	Enforceable undertaking
◦	Lifting of boxes is part of normal office work
◦	Should you be terminated for swearing at the boss, or kissing a colleague
◦	Who is NOT an officer of a PCBU.
◦	Powers of WorkCover NSW to force a company to produce documents
◦	Ensuring safety
◦	Can unreasonable behaviour be insured
◦	Is it forseeable?
◦	Employee responsible for own safety.
◦	HSR loses unfair dismissal case
◦	Transport company, and the director, fined for false records
◦	Hume doors enforceable undertaking
◦	Theft_of_data
◦	What_is_reasonable
◦	When a frolic is not compensatable!
◦	117 Workers found guilty
◦	Fired for doing a chicken dance
◦	Sexual harassment worker wins after appeal
◦	Enforceable Undertaking in glass factory
◦	Injured worker caught playing competative basketball
◦	Claim 19 years after death
◦	Throwing Stones – Not the Right Answer
◦	Employer beats OHS charge
◦	Beware of hot water before you land in it.
◦	Is 'lippy' a cure for bullying?
◦	Does a principal contractor have a responsibility to train a sub-contractor
◦	What constitutes 'reasonable'
◦	Be Polite
◦	Big payout for sexual harassment
◦	Sex not work - High Court decides
◦	Court defends HSR's actions
◦	What is acceptable alternative work
◦	Worker crushed by machine safe system failed
◦	Is it work? The courts don't always agree
◦	How not to break an egg
◦	Is drinking coffee work?
◦	Lifting copy paper nets almost $240k
◦	Baida Chickens
◦	Machinery supplier fined over amputation
◦	Director is not 'too remote' from the company
◦	The Kirk Case
◦	Bunnings and the Potting Mix
◦	Hazardous Hairdresser and OHS
◦	Robbery at Franklins
◦	Fosters $1.25m penalty
◦	Self employed - Safety for the disobedient

Stories from around the world

◦	UK Company pays 1 million pounds
◦	Hotel workers to wear panic buttons
◦	Royal Opera House made to face the music
◦	When can work be a smoko?
◦	penalty reduced on financial grounds
◦	Star Wars Film Producers Prosecuted
◦	Electromagnetic fields harmful to your health
◦	Warning to Welders
◦	A big payout for two four two letter words
◦	Green Tea can improve brain function
◦	Don't bully the boss
◦	When is a mother not a mother
◦	Obesity and work - the connection
◦	New Zealand to adopt Australian WHS law
◦	How I Broke My Collar Bone
◦	The church thatdoes not believe in prayer, and the whore house that does
◦	OHS Consultant fined for being unqualified
◦	Prison for OHS fraud
◦	What is sex discrimination worth?
◦	Don't get Cross about a Cross
◦	Fired for being too sexy
◦	Is lactation a condition of pregnancy
◦	Email From Home results in sacking
◦	Compo case while working from home
◦	Top ten US causes of workplace injury
◦	Drug testing and the story of a false 'you know what'
◦	Does your company have a love contract?
◦	Unknown worker retires
◦	The crazy world of Britain's OHS Regulations
◦	Buffered for Morale, or getting it all off

Stories from around Australia

◦	Who is looking after those that look after us.
◦	Drug vapours threaten life of police officer
◦	Urine testing banned
◦	Discriminatory Conduct
◦	Coles fined $170 000
◦	Unfair Dismissals
◦	Sex on a business trip
◦	Director acquitted and charged after appeal
◦	Telstra employee injured while working from home
◦	Jail sentence for OHS offence
◦	20 20 Hindsight
◦	OHS in a Brothel

Resources

◦	Pin Decision Tree
◦	Site Inspection Form

Communication

◦	Impromptu Speaking
◦	Retorts and Witticisms
◦	Washington Post Word competition
◦	Quotes1
◦	Quotes2
◦	Quote3

Legislation- codes of practice - fact sheets

◦	Legislation and Codes of Practice
◦	Fact Sheets and Statistics
◦	WHS Decision Tree

Accident Investigation and Reporting and Management Theories

◦	The concept of empowerment
◦	The Heinrich Law
◦	The five why technique
◦	Fishbone or 'Ishikawa technique'
◦	William_Edwards_Deming
◦	P_D_C_A
◦	Risk_Matrix

Just for fun

◦	SDS for hazardous material:- Man and Woman
◦	Murphy was an optomist
◦	OHS Humour
◦	Jokes you could tell in church
◦	When U Black, You Black
◦	Brain Teasers
◦	BrainTeaser 1
◦	BrainTeaser 2
◦	BrainTeaser 3
◦	BrainTeaser 4
◦	BrainTeaser 5
◦	BrainTeaser 6

Signs and Photographs

◦	Illusions
◦	Transport
◦	Stupid Signs
◦	Working at Height
◦	Not a good idea
◦	Electrical
◦	Wrong tool
◦	Overloaded
◦	Building sites and builders

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