As part of re-opening up coffee businesses, employers are now required to implement work safety plans to manage the risk of exposure from communicable diseases like Coronavirus COVID-19. This means ensuring that employee and customer exposure to the disease is managed. We've assembled some simple tips on how you can achieve this as part of [...]
Employers are frequently asking us about the process of transitioning employees back to the workplace as COVID-19 restrictions ease. How should we manage the transition to work? what precautions do we need to take? what if employees are concerned with returning? Is there any documentation requirements that we need to adopt? Unfortunately there are no [...]
Now that the world is slowly re-opening industries to enable the recovery of badly hit economies and save jobs, the key question remains on how best to move forward in automating as much as possible, while retaining jobs, and keeping facilities and employees safe? Safety and cybersecurity expert Friedhelm Best, Vice President Asia Pacific, HIMA [...]
A number of new changes to work health and safety in NSW have been made following the passing of the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Review) Act 2020 in June 2020. The key aspects of the changes to the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 include: Enhancement of the Category 1 offence by including “gross negligence” [...]
New Victorian Workplace manslaughter laws have come into effect from 1 July 2020. The new laws have implemented changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Victoria) particularly those involving industrial or workplace manslaughter. The new laws provide a range of obligations for employers and persons in charge of a business unit PCBU and impose the [...]
Over the last several months there has been a surge in demand for respirators (masks) in the Australia market. Much of the demand has been driven by the incidence of bush fires over December January 2020 period and later by the impacts of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the high demand in respiratory protection has resulted in a [...]
Conference and exhibition safety - Conference and exhibition facilities can be challenging when it comes to prevention of communicable diseases. With tens or hundreds of people in a room, there is no doubt there will be plenty of challenges for conference and exhibition organisers to manage their work health and safety obligations effectively. Here's our [...]
Two directors of a Brisbane wrecking yard have been convicted and sentenced under industrial manslaughter legislation after a worker was struck with a forklift and died at their worksite in May 2019. The case clearly demonstrates the consequences of failure to manage and implement traffic management plans at worksites. The case (see link to judgement) [...]
According to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, a man has sustained significant crush injuries after a runaway vehicle crushed him at a gate post. Queensland's safety regulator confirmed that in "April 2020, a man suffered serious injuries after being crushed by a frontend loader. Initial enquiries found the operator got out of the cabin to [...]
A Brisbane construction company has been fined for a safety failure to ensure a critical risk was managed on a construction work site. The company was recently fined $85,000 in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court after a concrete worker contacted an overhead powerline with a bull float (tool). The worker received an electric shock, causing serious [...]
