Q-Comp, Queensland’s Workers Compensation Regulatory Authority has introduced a new service to assist with the rehabilitation of injured workers at risk of long term unemployment. 

This free and voluntary service will assist injured workers who may not have a job to return to following a workplace accident.  As part of its functions, Return to Work Assist will place injured workers in contact with a network of rehabilitation programs and services as well as assisting the worker to identify realistic work goals. 

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Manumatic Industries Pty Ltd and Stanley Guthrie v Victorian WorkCover Authority

In this December 2008 case in the Victorian County Court, an employer company and its director have both been convicted and fined $100,000.00 each after a worker suffered fatal injuries in an accident in Epping, Victoria in August 2006. 

This prosecution represents the first occasion on which a company director has been fined under Victoria’s Occupational Health & Safety Act 2004.  The fine awarded by the Court was also the highest penalty every imposed on an individual under that legislation in Victoria. 

Spinks v M Dekker Constructions Pty Ltd (2009) SAIRC 8

In the 2009 decision of Spinks v M Dekker Constructions Pty Ltd, the South Australian Magistrates Court reduced a penalty imposed on an employer from $72,000.00 to $20,000.00 in light of the employer’s financial hardship.

The defendant, Dekker Constructions Pty Ltd (Dekker) was performing building and construction work for the Ahrens Group.  Dekker was contracted by the Ahrens Group to construct a warehouse and, at the time of the event, was in the process of lifting roof panels into place.  On 2 March 2006, a section of the roof steel structure collapsed injuring 4 workers.

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