According to a recent report in the New Zealand Herald, leading car safety advocates have called for the outright ban of lap seatbelts on imported vehi-cles. They also want a campaign to upgrade vehicles already fitted with them.

A company in Seven Hills, Sydney has been fined $220,000 by the NSW Industrial Court following the death of an employee.

WorkCover NSW has appointed one of its most highly experienced senior managers to head the authority's reorganised TestSafe Australia facilities at Londonderry and Thornleigh.

Products for forklifts and other industrial equipment will be released by Dunham Instruments at Matex during National Manufacturing Week, to be held at Sydney’s Darling Harbour from May 30 to June 2.

An explosion and fire at Mascot Airport, which injured a mechanic in 2002, has resulted in a fuel company being fined $150,000 in the NSW Industrial Court.

Omron Corporation and Scientific Technologies have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Omron will acquire STI for $94 million plus net cash and working-capital adjustments.

WorkCover NSW has issued a reminder to holders of all pre-1996 WorkCover licences to operate equipment and erect scaffolding that the deadline to convert their licences runs out next month (30 June, 2006).

US researchers have provided another reason to encourage workers to improve their health, finding that obese employees are not only more likely to die of a number of causes but also have a higher risk of accidents.The groundbreaking US study involved middle-aged workers employed at Shell Oil Refinery's manufacturing and research facilities. The workers' health data was recorded at the end of 1983 and again 20 years later.

The Federal Government is amending the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations to mandate drug and alcohol testing for all safety sensitive airline personnel, and may also require random testing.

Public comment on the proposed new asbestos safety laws will close on 19 May 2006.

Government agencies across the country have joined forces to develop a new emergency operations system, designed to synchronise Australia's disaster response and save lives.

The Quins munitions plant explosion near Gladstone has prompted SA Unions to call for an urgent overhaul of workplace safety standards in South Australia.

NT WorkSafe are running a campaign for forklift safety during May 2006 involving maintenance records and forklift licensing to encourage industry to comply with Work Health legislation.

The ACTU has called on the Howard Government to retract the sections of its Industrial Relations laws which ban workplace agreements from giving workers leave to attend union-provided Health and Safety training or meetings.

ACT WorkCover inspectors will visit hundreds of small businesses across the ACT as part of a major audit of compliance with workplace legislation.