Topic
45 articles from our Tips & Trends archive.
The Victorian County Court has significantly increased a workplace health and safety penalty, from $32,500 to $110,000—after finding the original fine inadequate given the seriousness of the offence and the maximum available penalty of over $2 million.
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The Federal Court recently in Fernandez v Australian Postal Corporation [2025] FCA 1144 found that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) denied a psychological injury claimant procedural fairness by failing to properly consider the events he said caused his condition.
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NSW District Court recently in SafeWork NSW v Momentum Consulting Group Pty Ltd [2025] NSWDC 400 found that a labour-hire company could not rely on a “mistake-of-fact” defence after one of its workers suffered a catastrophic injury while operating machinery at a host employer’s site.
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Christmas is a great time of year but unfortunately, work functions can be fertile ground for incidents that lead to not only WHS claims but also: sexual harassment, sex based harassment, hostile work environment, sex discrimination, victimisation (collectively the Respect@Work obligations), plus bullying, adverse action, unfair dismissal and privacy claims as well.
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In WorkSafe v Indimax Production Pty Ltd, Melbourne Magistrates Court, 24 September 2025 the Court convicted and fined a video production company for failing to implement safeguards against sexual harassment. The employer was prosecuted under s 21(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) for failing to maintain a safe workplace and was fined $40,000, while its Director was personally fined $15,000.
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SafeWork NSW recently issued a prohibition notice to the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), ordering it to pause its staff downsizing program due to serious concerns about psychological harm to employees.
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Victoria finally joined the Harmonised WHS States in creating Regulations and a Compliance Code to manage Psychosocial Risks. They will take effect from 1 December 2025.
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Yes. SafeWork NSW recently accepted a $700K+ enforceable WHS Undertaking from an employer, in lieu of prosecution arising out of an electric shock incident with more than half of the costs dedicated to implementing a comprehensive psychosocial risk management process and rolling out a three-tiered safety training program.
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In (McCabe v UGL Engineering Pty Ltd [2025] FWC 1478 (29 May 2025)) FWC recently found a HSR who unilaterally shut down electrical generators on a major project – affecting first-aid facilities and other key areas of the site – was not unfairly dismissed because they had plenty of other options to appropriately deal with their safety concerns.
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No - according to the NSW Government who in its recent report to address the sustainability of the workers compensation system concluded that employers can expect the premiums to rise by 36% over the next three years to 2027 – 2028.
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A South Australian Tribunal (Lauren Vercoe v Local Government Association Workers Compensation Scheme [2024] SAET 91 (18 October 2024)) has ruled that a council worker who broke her arm tripping over a pet fence while working from home is entitled to workers' compensation, highlighting employer responsibilities in remote work arrangements.
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Safe Work Australia has released its latest report outlining the key WHS statistics across Australia (click here). These statistics provide a good indicator, consistent with risk management principles, of where ‘more focus’ should be implemented across ‘most’ workplaces.
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On 2 October 2024 industrial manslaughter became a criminal offence under Tasmania’s WHS which now means it applies in all states and territories.
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Christmas is a great time of year but unfortunately, work functions can be fertile ground for incidents that lead to not only WHS claims but also: sexual harassment, sex based harassment, hostile work environment, sex discrimination, victimisation (collectively the Respect@Work obligations), plus bullying, adverse action, unfair dismissal, and privacy claims as well.
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All businesses experience the pre-Christmas rush. Workplaces seek to ‘clear the decks’ before they ‘deck the halls’ with their family and friends, and this in turn places additional demands on other workplaces. The cycle is unhelpful for all businesses and is likely to contribute to fatigue of workers. Will this year be any different?
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Each case will be different, depending on an organisational risk profile, but recent commentary from Safe Work South Australia’s Principal Inspector of Organisational Psychology, Sam Atkins gave some good ‘hints’ that PCBUs can apply to increase the likelihood of compliance. This advice comes following a recent prosecution of a WA prison department that was handed a record-shattering $900,000 workplace health and safety fine in 2022, could receive another safety fine of up to $3.5 million, after becoming the first duty holder to be charged with failing to attempt to control psychosocial hazards under Western Australia's WHS laws.
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A company director was awarded $238,000 in costs (click here) following the WHS Regulator’s failed attempt to prosecute him for due diligence offences that followed after a male customer died and his wife was severely injured in a zip line accident in Queensland.
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An employer has been fined $400,000 in the Perth Magistrates Court after a contract worker was injured performing a task that wasn't covered in his safety induction and which the workplace supervisor hadn't been trained on.
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The Safety Regulator has charged a Director and his business with recklessly endangering a fatigued delivery driver who was killed in a car accident after 12 hours into a shift delivering goods to various locations.
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Employers take heed. The new head of SafeWork Australia, Marie Boland, in recently releasing the latest SWA report into psychosocial safety, warned employers that they need to take greater efforts into managing escalating mental health compensation claims.
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According to a recent study of 44 reports on major accidents in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and the US – Yes
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Possibly. As a general rule the higher up in the ‘foodchain’ you are in an organisation the more likely the expectation you meet WHS Officer duties. Unhelpfully this question is really only able to be determined on a case-by-case basis but thankfully there are now some recent cases which have provided some guidance in this area.
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The traffic accident on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway that resulted in the deaths of four police officers has resulted in: • the national operations manager - 3 years' jail • the driver - 14.5 years jail • company $2.31 M fine
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All businesses experience the pre-Christmas rush. Workplaces seek to ‘clear the decks’ before they ‘deck the halls’ with their family and friends, and this in turn places additional demands on other workplaces. The cycle is unhelpful for all businesses and is likely to contribute to fatigue of workers. The post COVID-19 work spike has been well documented. For a lot of businesses, there has been no respite
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Christmas is a great time of year but unfortunately, work functions can be fertile ground for incidents that lead to not only WHS claims but also: sexual harassment, sex based harassment, hostile work environment, sex discrimination, victimisation (collectively the Respect@Work obligations), plus bullying, adverse action, unfair dismissal, and privacy claims as well. With the introduction of the new positive duty for the Respect@Work obligations, employers now have multiple proactive and preventative obligations to ensure that Christmas functions are safe for their employees and others who attend (eg clients, customers, food and beverage staff etc).
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A resounding “Yes” according to FWC (Thien Huy Xuan Dang v Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia Pty Ltd (U2023/1175)) after the employer was found to have fairly dismissed a worker who regularly and deliberately set their cruise control above the speed limit.
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Unsafe job demands, according to Comcare’s National Regulatory Program Director, are the most common psychosocial hazards in workplaces at the moment.
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FWC recently upheld (Sheldon Haigh v Platinum Blasting Services Pty Ltd [2023] FWC 2465) the dismissal of an employee for failing, as per the employer’s policy, to disclose his use of prescription medical marijuana even though he disclosed it during a testing process and passed the test.
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The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) recently published its Guidelines for Complying with the Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to demonstrate to Employers how to practically comply with its new obligations.
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Australia is once again very close to achieving ‘enhanced’ obligations to tackle psychosocial safety with specific regulations being recently introduced throughout the various jurisdictions. Whilst strictly speaking, there have always been obligations to address psychosocial safety, these ‘clarifiers’ pave the way for more overt practical implementation. Employers can anticipate a heightened compliance environment and expectations from their workforce for improved outcomes at the ‘coalface’.
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In the wake of the 14 October 2022 scrapping of the mandatory COVID-19 isolation periods, employers and employees alike are being urged by public health bodies to continue to appropriately manage COVID-19 return to work timeframes.
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Yes. In Bell v Nexus Primary Health, the Employer was held liable for its Employee’s sustained psychological injury and ordered to pay $1.24M in damages after the Employee (a family outreach worker) was attacked by the husband of a previously assessed high risk client while on the way to work. This attack occurred when she was exiting her car outside her doctor’s office which resulted in the Employee suffering from PTSD and rendering her unable to work. The Employee was also subjected to further threats and even had bricks thrown through her house window.
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In a recent ruling, the NSW District Court has regretfully made comment that it seems the general deterrence message of PCBU penalties for safety breaches is “not getting through to employers who require their workers to work at height – inherently dangerous work.”
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Yes, but only if the dismissal is not harsh, unjust or unreasonable.
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Employers and employees both have Work Health and Safety (WHS) obligations which include preventing sick individuals (including employers and leaders) from attending the workplace if they are unwell.
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In line with the rapid growth in awareness (and claims) relating to psychosocial health at work, Safe Work Australia has published its highly anticipated model WHS Code of Practice, Managing psychosocial hazards at work (Code) (available here). You may remember our previous article on the first Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards (available here).
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Many employers will notice an increase in Safety Regulators focusing their WHS campaigns on Sexual Harassment, Gendered Violence and Sex Based Harassment this year following on from the Jenkins Report, the Federal Government’s commitment to implement all recommendations and a clearer recognition that all such issues are serious hazards that can cause physical and psychological harm in the workplace.
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The High Court recently handed down its decision in Kozarov v Victoria [2022] HCA 12, in which it made clear that employers have a duty to safeguard their employees from work-related mental harm - even in circumstances where there is a vicarious trauma policy in place.
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In a recent Work Health and Safety (WHS) prosecution, a director (of Illawarra Enterprises (QLD) Pty Ltd) was sentenced to 4 months jail wholly suspended for a period of 12 months after a narrow earthen pathway, which a worker was walking on, gave way causing the worker to fall through an unbarricaded 1.9-metre deep trench. The worker was impaled on a steel bar and suffered severe injuries to his groin and stomach.
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Following on from our earlier article on the Labor government’s IR agenda – the party have also, at their most recent National Platform, developed and adopted a series of WHS policies that could see the future of WHS laws changing as a result of the 2022 Federal Election.
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A lack of public health orders is not an excuse for employers to drop the ball on keeping workplaces COVID-safe – that’s the latest message from the ACTU and a view shared by Safe Work Australia (SWA), demonstrating that unions and regulatory bodies are mostly aligned on the future of WHS relating to COVID-19 as we emerge from the pandemic.
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A South Australian tribunal decision provides a caution to employers who provide non-work related benefits to their employees while on work trips.
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As of 28 May 2021, New South Wales became the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce the Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work.
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The following headlines arising out of 3 recent WHS prosecutions should worry any ‘officer’
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The short answer is still “no”.
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