As Western Australia struggles with a skilled labour shortage, a Perth researcher and orthopaedic surgeon has published important findings on long work absences due to lower back pain. [ + ]

Overwork is significantly impacting the mental health and wellbeing of Australians, a Flinders University labour studies expert warns. [ + ]

The Gillard government has welcomed the first Equal Remuneration Order handed down by Fair Work Australia (FWA). The order details how the social and community sector workers - most of them women - will receive significant pay rises. [ + ]

WorkCover NSW is investigating after a 40-year-old male worker died in a forklift incident at Flemington markets this morning. [ + ]

Employees of collapsed companies may be adversely affected by the High Court’s ruling that the Commonwealth’s funding of the school chaplains program is constitutionally invalid. [ + ]

The OHS profession moves into a new era with the first university-level program approved by the new Australian OHS Education Accreditation. [ + ]

Minister for Employment Bill Shorten has congratulated the top 50 of BRW’s annual Best Place to Work list and encouraged Australian employers and employees to look to these workplaces for lessons on how to improve their own. [ + ]

Following an incident in which a worker’s leg was caught in a sweep auger, a Horsham company has been fined $50,000. [ + ]

WorkSafe's participation in recent roadblock exercises has revealed continuing concerns with the transport industry's compliance with fatigue management laws. [ + ]

As workforces across the country strike and headcount is reduced, career prospects in the OHS sector remain strong, attracting pay packages more than 90% above the average Australian salary. [ + ]

A pioneering study by researchers of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has shed light on the prevention of heat stroke for outdoor workers in a scientific manner. One of the major recommendations is to link up the Very Hot Weather Signal issued by the Hong Kong Observatory with additional breaks for outdoor workers on stuffy workdays. [ + ]

Kiwi employees and their bosses will shed unprecedented light on the world of employment and the workplace in The Great New Zealand Employment Survey. [ + ]

Resource industry employer group AMMA has addressed the federal government’s inquiry into fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workplace practices, as executive director, industry services, Minna Knight reaffirmed the importance of FIFO to one of Australia’s strongest industries. [ + ]

Occupational skincare company Deb Group has announced it will be building a $15m new manufacturing facility for the Australian and South East Asian markets at Moorebank Business Park in South Western Sydney. [ + ]

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan and Minister for Employment Participation Kate Ellis recently met with Members and Senators in Canberra to promote the benefits of mature-age workforce participation. [ + ]