Australia | Publication | agosto 2023
Welcome to our WHS Law Briefing. This briefing identifies key issues and emerging trends in WHS law, and details the significant legislative and case law developments to date in August 2023. Please contact our national WHS team contacts if you would like to discuss any of the matters in this briefing or would like any source materials which have not been included. We welcome your feedback.
| National WHS strategy | Safe Work Australia has released the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2033 agreed to by all jurisdictions, setting the agenda for Australia’s response to key WHS challenges over the next 10 years. Areas of focus include, among other things, psychosocial risks, the rise of artificial intelligence, hybrid working and climate-related risks. |
| Psychosocial risks | Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth have now joined New South Wales, with their regulations for the management of psychosocial risks now being in force. The Northern Territory’s regulations commenced on 1 July 2023. The Commonwealth and Northern Territory diverged slightly from the model WHS Regulations by not excluding the operation of the hierarchy of controls for the management of psychosocial risks. South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory are yet to enact regulations for the specific management of psychosocial risks. There have been a number of prosecutions involving psychosocial hazards arising in the context of HR investigations. |
| Silica dust | There is a continued focus on the regulation of crystalline silica. Companies continue to receive fines for silica-related breaches. The model WHS Regulations now expressly prohibit the uncontrolled processing of engineered stone and clarify what will be considered “controlled processing”. South Australia has announced it will be adopting this prohibition and it will come into effect in September 2023. Safe Work Australia is expected to deliver a report to the WHS Ministers by the end of August 2023 that will provide recommendations regarding options to prohibit the use of either all engineered stone, engineered stone with crystalline silica concentration of 40% or more, or introducing licensing for PCBUs working with engineered stone that is not otherwise banned. |
| Positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment | Provisions introducing a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment have passed in the Commonwealth, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory. The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory provisions have not yet commenced. Queensland has also acknowledged that creating a positive duty is an “important element of a proactive and preventative anti-discrimination framework”. |
Publication
On 6 September 2022, the European Commission (EC) prohibited Illumina’s acquisition of Grail, bringing to an end the administrative stage of a legal saga that has attracted interest beyond competition law specialists.
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