WorkSafe Victoria has urged employers to take a zero-tolerance approach to workplace initiations this year, warning that the pranks can lead to serious injury and death.

The dangers of using hay-balers have been outlined in the latest Hazard Alert issued by SafeWork SA.

Victoria’s work-related death toll for 2008 has risen to three in as many weeks with a fatality at a Latrobe Valley timber mill Last Thursday.

South Australia is joining workplace health and safety regulators across Australia to ensure workplaces have appropriate measures in place to prevent falls in the construction industry.

A South Gippsland mechanic repairs company has been committed to stand trial in the County Court on workplace health and safety charges, after a customer was crushed on their premises.

The government has called for innovative research projects to improve workplace safety in South Australia.

WorkSafe Victoria has called on the building industry to lay the foundations for a safe year as most of the state’s building sites opened for business this week.

The Regional Roadshows tour will be traversing South Australia this year from 31 March to 4 April, displaying the very latest in industrial automation, instrumentation and process technology.

Two government inquiries have begun into last November's Yallourn mine collapse.

WorkCover NSW issued a reminder that as of 1 January 2008, the threshold for the removal, repair and disturbance of bonded asbestos has been reduced to 10 m².

Workplace health and safety regulators across Australia and New Zealand are joining forces to target falls prevention in the construction industry, particularly small and medium-sized projects.

SafeWork SA’s Industry Improvement Program is targeting workplaces in South Australia that are contributing disproportionately to the number of workers compensation claims in the state.

Nearly 5000 people were seriously hurt and nine people died in machinery-related MRISC (maintenance, repair, installation, servicing and cleaning of machines) work in Victoria’s manufacturing industry in the past year.

The Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources, Peter Batchelor, recently initiated two government inquiries into the Yallourn mine collapse in November.

Victoria’s Accident Compensation Act will be updated to enhance support for injured workers. The Minister for Finance, WorkCover and the Transport Accident Commission, Tim Holding said: “The Accident Compensation Act 1985 has been in operation for over 20 years and is the basis of a workers compensation scheme that has provided support to hundreds of thousands of injured workers. While the underlying principles of the Act remain sound, incremental changes over the years have made it unwieldy and unnecessarily complex.”