The last several months have seen rapid changes in the employment and workplace health and safety space. With such dynamic movement, and then lots of commentary on each of these changes, it’s easy to view all these changes as one big jumble of puzzle pieces. And it can be hard to know what the whole
Already stretched HR, ER, WHS and Legal teams are about to confront a (seemingly) never-ending stream of law changes that will require cross-team collaboration to operationalise.
At a time when there are already broader economic and market challenges for businesses, leading employers will need to have sufficient resourcing and planning to confront the
Gone are the days when workplace safety belongs only in factories and mines. In 2023 criminal charges can and will be brought in relation to hazards and their associated risks that traverse every industry, every workplace and cannot be seen by the naked eye. Caution signs will not “cut the mustard”.
Born originally from the
Employers around Australia will need to review and centralise sexual harassment prevention initiatives in light of the new duty in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to take “reasonable and proportionate” measures to prevent sexual harassment.
The nature and extent of this positive duty will be the subject of much legal argument. But what is clear
During the Australian summer, media reports have documented a tragic spike in drownings at unpatrolled Australian beaches, as people search for remote swimming spots they might not normally use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of swimming lessons – a rite of passage to a core element of Australian life — have also been missed
Some time ago, we queried whether punitive enforcement action against duty holders was the best approach for improving health and safety outcomes for Australian workers.
Since then, Australian Parliaments have been busy creating yet more offences for the statute books, that carry even more serious penalties. Industrial manslaughter is just one example. Cynics might interpret
The novel coronavirus pandemic has put a spotlight on the mental health of workers.
The crisis posed immediate and acute challenges for organisations and workers. In an extremely short period of time, we have all had to navigate periods of isolation and loss of social interactions, new ways of working, constantly changing health messages and
Our clients care about “machines” (including “robots”, artificial intelligence, biometrics and the harnessing of big data) being developed as a result of innovation and
Right of entry disputes are common – partly because of the multiple laws that at a glance seem to overlap in a way that can be confusing. The latest chapter in this saga has recently played out in the
