Since Safe Work Australia’s 2008 commitment to ‘harmonise’ Australian Occupational Health & Safety Laws (‘OHS’), the so-called ‘model legislation’, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (‘WHS Act’), has gone from strength to strength. As it currently stands, the WHS Act has been passed in near identical form across all Australian jurisdictions except for Victoria and Western Australia.
In a recent decision at the Perth Magistrates Court, a Perth labour hire company has been fined $20,000 for failing to ensure the safety of their workers. The labour hire company in question, Eastlink, hired out their workers to a Bayswater waste recycling plant. Although no incident or injury had taken place, the Court held that Eastlink had failed to take reasonable steps towards ensuring that the recycling plant was a safe place to work.
Hail Creek Coal, a Rio Tinto subsidiary, has recently learned the hard way just how painful an adverse action can be.
No matter how carefully managed a company is, most will face issues arising from insolvent trading or non-payment of debts
Welcome to Hentys ‘Winter 2015’ newsletter edition. We trust you will find it both interesting and informative
Drug and alcohol testing and policies The introduction of policies dealing with drugs and alcohol in the workplace and the testing of employees is often challenging for employers. Additionally, various
Bullying provisions in a nutshell In the first nine months of 2014, the Fair Work Commission (“FWC”) received more than 530 applications for orders to stop bullying but only one
From 1 July 2015 the following increases to wage rates and various annually indexed rates will apply.
A short briefing on some interesting case results of Feb-March 2015
A decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria made on 26 June 2013. The case concerns a successful application for damages for pain and suffering and pecuniary loss suffered by an applicant because of psychiatric injury at work. The case highlights a further avenue that can be taken by employees and the practical steps that should be taken by employers to avoid and minimise such cases in their workplace.
A short practical summary of the new anti-bullying jurisdiction to be administered by the Fair Work Commission, commencing with the definitions of what is bullying, analysing the application process and providing some practical advice on what employer’s should do to prevent such applications and how to deal with them once they are made.
A High Court decision with long term implications for employment law in Australia.