Tag: Legal Precedent
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Retroactive Rationalisation: The Judicial Rejection of Backward Reasoning in Safety Trials
The primary defence strategy employed by regulatory safety prosecutors post-incident is often built on an intuitive timeline: a catastrophic injury occurred, an engineering control was missing, therefore the employer failed to take all reasonably practicable steps to eliminate the risk. In a landmark determination, the Supreme Court of Victoria completely dismantled this approach. In SKM…
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Woman wins s-xual harassment payout against retail tycoon
Sole director of the Rivers Australia Chain and retail tycoon Philip Goodman was alleged to have sexually harassed a female worker.
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A look at liability in Elphick vs Westfield
The Court of Appeal in New South Wales considered Westfield’s liability to an employee of a cleaning contractor, ACS, that was injured in the course of performing cleaning duties at the Westfield Shopping Centre at Tuggerah. This post reviews the legislative background behind that case and looks at exactly where the liabilities are.
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Intimidating inspectors comes at a cost
December 13, at the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court two men who assaulted, threatened and intimidated WorkSafe (Victoria) inspectors pleaded guilty to charges of inspector assault & intimidation. The two men, one a director and the other an employee of a Melbourne based construction company were separately convicted and fined $2,000 and sentenced to six months imprisonment,…