AUSTRALIA Post have docked a half a days pay from employees who had a safety meeting that went too long.

About 30 Rockdale Mail Centre staff are protesting outside the workplace after being told they would lose half a day’s wages because the meeting, scheduled during a meal break, ran over into working hours.

Under the new IR laws it was considered an illegal stop-work meeting, allowing Australia Post to dock half a day’s wages.

Australia Post spokeswoman Sheridan Beattie said the Communications Union, which arranged the meeting to discuss the dangers of a new bundling system being trialled at the centre, was fully aware of its legal obligation.

“The action resulted from staff being directed to return to work, when a meeting organised by their union representatives during their meal break ran over time by over 30 minutes, due to the union representatives arriving with only 12 minutes left of the staff’s meal break,” Ms Beattie said.

“The union is fully aware of both their and Australia Post’s legal requirements, and it is unfortunate they still encouraged their members to take this action today.”

She said contingencies were in place to ensure mail was delivered to Rockdale residents and businesses today.

Union state secretary Jim Metcher said the heavy-handed move was evidence of the ridiculousness of the federal Government’s WorkChoices laws.

“We have a group of 30 workers who want to go back to work, but are being told they will not be paid if they do so,” Mr Metcher said.

“We have management saying that under WorkChoices, even 15 minutes to be briefed on the safe operation of new equipment amounts to industrial action that draws punitive measures.”

A Mareeba man was injured on a farm in Mareeba yesterday.

The 33-year-old man was reportedly injured by farm machinery at the property about 10km east of Mareeba shortly before midday yesterday (AEST).

He was taken to Cairns Base Hospital but died while having surgery about 1.15pm.

Detectives had spoken to a number of people present when the man was injured, police said.

Two men have been fined $15,000 for taking film from a Worksafe Inspectorand burying it with an escavator.

Mildura Magistrate Dan Muling today imposed the penalty after the men pleaded guilty to charges including assault and failing to comply with an inspector’s direction.

Worksafe Victoria executive director John Merritt said the case reinforced the message that the organisation’s inspectors must be allowed to do their job without interference.

“An inspector’s camera was taken from him and the film buried in a Mildura drainage project trench in February last year,” Mr Merritt said today.

The inspector had sought to photograph a roadside work site after first warning its operators that correct safety measures were not in place, posing a risk to motorists and workers.

Instead, the inspector’s camera was forcibly taken from him, its film removed and thrown into the ditch and an excavator used to bury it.

“WorkSafe’s inspectors play a vital role in community efforts to stop people being killed or hurt at work,” Mr Merritt said.

“We take seriously what we see as efforts to undermine their duties through physical means or intimidation.”

Peter Prostamo, 45, of Reservoir, was fined $6500 and ordered to pay costs of $8557, while Marcello De Frenza, 35, of Mornington Peninsula, was ordered to pay $1000.

Convictions were not recorded.

A Professional Abalone Diver Was Bitten On The Head By A Great White Shark Today Before Poking It In The Eye To Escape.

Eric Nerhus, 41, was diving with his 25-year-old son and a group of other divers at Cape Howe, near Eden, when he was attacked by the 3m white pointer about 10.30am (AEDT).

The shark grabbed Mr Nerhus by the head, crushing his face mask inwards and breaking his nose, said friend and fellow diver Dennis Luobikis.

“He was actually bitten by the head down, the shark swallowed his head,” Mr Luobikis said.

The shark then took a second bite, clamping its jaws around Mr Nerhus’s torso and tearing deep cuts in each side of his body.

Mr Nerhus, a well-known local diver with more than five years’ experience, struggled free from the shark’s jaws and was pulled back aboard the boat by his son.

Two other divers in a nearby boat gave him first aid and one radioed his father, who was flying overhead in a spotter plane, to call for help.

The Snowy Hydro Rescue Helicopter arrived shortly after 11.10am and took Mr Nerhus, who was suffering from shock and blood loss, to Wollongong Hospital.

He is in a serious but stable condition.

Mr Nerhus told his rescuers he poked the shark in the eye to fight his way free, a Snowy Hydro Rescue Helicopter spokeswoman said.

Mr Luobikis, 53, said it was a miracle his friend was alive.

“Eric is a tough boy, he’s super fit,” he said. “But I would say that would test anyone’s resolve, being a fish lunch.”

“He’d have a better chance of winning the lotto (than surviving that attack), and I think he would have rather done that.”

There had been a rash of white pointer sightings in recent weeks because of unusually cold water off Eden, but such an attack was unheard of, Mr Luobikis said.

“I have been a professional diver in Eden for 36 years and I’m not aware of any white pointer attacks in that time,” he said.

Rough conditions deterred many divers from venturing out this morning, Mr Luobikis said.

Swimmers were evacuated from three popular south coast beaches last week after sharks were spotted during aerial patrols.

The white pointer, or great white shark, is the world’s largest known predatory fish, with an average length of 4m-5m.

It can grow up to 6m and thrives in colder waters.

In Tasmania A Forestry Worker Has Been Killed While Logging a Tree

The logging contractor was working near Geeveston when he was struck on the head at 8.15am (AEDT) today.

Police said colleagues tried to resuscitate the man, but paramedics pronounced him dead a short time later.

A coronial investigation is underway and Workplace Standards and Tasmania Police are investigating.

The age and identity of the man, who was a local resident, are yet to be released.

A Bee Sting Has Killed a Rubbish Collector in the NSW Riverina District.

The 45-year-old Narrandera man died in Griffith District Hospital yesterday, police said.

He was stung while collecting rubbish from a property at Willbriggie, near Griffith, and died in hospital.

The man was allergic to bee stings, an ambulance spokesman said.

WORKER’S fled as Joinery business goes up in smoke

Fire Brigade crews were called to the factory in Edwardes Road, Reservoir, part of a seven-unit complex, about 10.20am, a spokeswoman said.

Workers initially tried to fight the blaze, but were over powered by the fire.

Explosions could be heard coming from the building.

The factory was fully alight when fire crews arrived, but firefighters have stopped the blaze from spreading to adjoining buildings.

They got the fire under control in 15 minutes.

No one was injured.