Melbourne WHS Law agenda

Workplace Health & Safety Law Agenda

Tuesday 12 November 2019, Stamford Plaza Melbourne

 

08.30 Registration
09.00 Opening remarks from the chair
09.10

National Review of the model WHS laws

 
  • Discussing the outcomes of the review
  • Understanding the key recommendations for changes to the Model WHS Laws
  • Considering the implications for Victorian laws
  • Understanding the next steps
 

Marie Costa, Special Counsel, Corrs Chambers Westgarth

9.55

The wellbeing and mental health conundrum – building a mental health program to create a respectful, healthy and productive workplace

 
  • What is employer’s duty to prevent mental health risks within your workplace?
  • Exploring the most recent evidence that mental health program has a clear return on investment
  • Building evidence based strategic interventions
  • Exploring the legal tools, business metrics and strategic responses to mental health issues
 

Graham Dent, Principal Lawyer, FCW Lawyers

10.40 Morning Tea
11.10

Effectively dealing with workplace bullying and harassment

 
  • Understanding the importance of strong and accountable actions from HR
  • Responding quickly once it occurs
  • Taking mitigating actions
  • Managing expectations, processes and privacy
  • Investigations and alternatives
  • Monitoring welfare and planning for the post-investigation phase
 

Catherine Dunlop, Partner, Maddocks

 11.55

Dealing with serious WHS incidents for effective crisis management

 
  • What are employers’ obligations when serious workplace incidents happen?
  • Managing serious incidents within 48 hours for effective initial response
  • Submitting written notification to regulators
  • Conducting incident investigations
 

Sam Jackson, Special Counsel, Sparke Helmore

12.40 Lunch
13.40

Understanding directors’ duty and ensuring compliance with individual prosecution

 
  • Exercising due diligence to comply with WHS obligations
  • Exploring current developments in personal liability
  • Understanding officer liability in major incidents
  • What penalties employers may face?
 

Cassandra Collier, Special Counsel, Minter Ellison

14.25

Exploring recent cases in industrial manslaughter legislation

 
  • Understanding the increased regulatory scrutiny for WHS breaches
  • In what cases the senior officer is guilty of industrial manslaughter
  • Preparing your business for the updated industrial manslaughter legislation
 

Steve Bell, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills

15.10

Afternoon tea

15.40

Exploring practical steps to balance performance management and support for mental health

 
  • Reducing psychological hazards in performance management process
  • Improving managers’ capability in identifying the early warning sign of mental health issues
  • What’s employer’s duty once an employee with a mental health issue has been identified?
  • Performance managing employee suffering with psychological injuries
  • Discussing termination of employment of an employee with a mental health issue
 

Jon Lovell, Partner, Ashurst

16.20

Managing return to work process and facilitating a quick return to work

 
  • Minimising the duration and costs of claims for an efficient case management
  • Intervening early and enabling workplace adjustments for workers to stay at work whilst recovering from injury
  • What are the impacts of long return to work process to employers?
  • Handling difficult return to work cases
 

Erin Hawthorne, Partner, Seyfarth Shaw

 17.00 End of conference