Small businesses in 14 suburbs and towns across Victoria will be receiving special attention from WorkSafe inspectors over the coming year.

Businesses in each area will be visited by inspectors over a five day period as part of WorkSafe's Safe Towns and Safer Work Zones campaign, which has been running for nearly a decade.

Safe Work Australia's report released in February based on the National Hazard Exposure (Worker Surveillance survey shows many Australian workers risk injury from loud workplace noise. Key findings include:

• Between 28 and 32 per cent of the Australian workforce are likely to work in an environment where they are exposed to non-trivial loud noise.
• Male workers were more likely to report exposure to loud noise than female workers.
• Young workers were more likely to report exposure to loud noise than older workers.

Are you aware of National Employment Standards - such as maximum weekly working hours and the obligation to consider employees' requests for flexible work arrangements. Here's what you need to know about the NES.

Some managers and owners remain unaware of the National Employment Standards, which came into effect in January.

NES cover all employees, regardless of their industry, occupation or earnings.

In July 2010, new return to work requirements came into effect under Victoria's Accident Compensation Act 1985. While WorkSafe Victoria says the key elements of a successful return to work have not changed, a transitional period has been introduced to help employers adjust to the new laws:

• Claims received before 1 July 2010
  

The World Health Organisation has declared that the "new H1N1 virus has largely run its course" but "this does not mean that the H1N1 virus has gone away."

"Based on experience with past pandemics, we expect the H1N1 virus to take on the behaviour of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come," the WHO briefing states.

The Re-employment Incentive Scheme for Employers (RISE) supports employers to provide a job to injured workers who cannot return to their previous employer. Sometimes a worker's injury makes it hard for them to do their old job but they are capable of doing a different job. By providing a full-time, part-time or casual job to an injured worker, an employer may be eligible for significant financial incentive and support through RISE.

September 11 2010 - Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that about one in six workers started work with a new employer/business in the year to February 2010.

10.9 million people were at work in February 2010. Of these, 2 million (18 per cent) had been at their (then) current employer/business for less than a year and 963,000 (about a half) had changed employer/business during that period. People aged 25-34 years and 35-44 years were most likely to have changed their employer/business.

September 7 2010 - The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) marked Equal Pay Day in September 2010 by highlighting a widening gender pay gap.

August 31 2010 - Australian workers are more likely to change employers over the next 12 months compared to staff in 16 other countries, according to research by employee engagement consultants Infogroup/ORC.

Based on responses from 9300 employees worldwide, the study found that 57 per cent are engaged with their current organisations, with Australia placed 7th, narrowly behind the United States and Germany.

An emergency wage subsidy is available from the Ministry of Social Development for employers with fewer than 20 staff. This will assist them with paying their employees if they're unable to open for business or have reduced capacity following the earthquake.

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