Australian WHS Legislation Made Simple
Work Health and Safety (WHS), or Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S), laws can be complex, and you don’t have to be an expert. However, you need to have a basic understanding of the laws to ensure your business is safe and compliant with the legislation. Let’s look at Australia’s WHS laws and what they mean for your business.
There are three key components of Australia’s WHS laws that businesses need to understand:
The Model WHS Act
WHS Regulations
Codes of Practice
The Model WHS Act
In Australia, WHS laws are based on the Model WHS Act. Before 2012, each state and territory put together their own individual laws, but the Model WHS Act has streamlined these laws to cover all bases for each jurisdiction to use.
The Model WHS Act has been adopted in ACT, NSW, NT, SA, TAS, QLD and WA. The only remaining state, Victoria, that has not adopted it still has to implement some kind of WHS legislation, but until they adopt the Model WHS Act, they still fall under the previous law: the OH&S Act of 2004.
The Model WHS Act covers anybody carrying out work for a business or undertaking, including contractors, apprentices and volunteers. It outlines all the responsibilities that a person who conducts the business or undertaking (known as a PCBU) has towards their workforce.
Under the Model WHS Act, PCBUs need to:
Keep up to date with WHS laws
Understand risks in the workplace
Have systems and processes in place to manage and mitigate risk
Notify any relevant people of safety incidents
WHS Regulations
WHS Regulations provide businesses with details on the relevant clauses in the Model WHS Act, showing you how to mitigate risk in specific areas of your workplace to meet the requirements of the WHS Act.
Codes of Practice
Codes of Practice guide PCBUs on how they can apply the requirements of the WHS Act and its regulations. These guides can be generic to all workplaces, such as requiring a first aid kit or needing a fire safety plan. They can also be specific to a type of working environment, such as spray painting or operating certain kinds of heavy machinery.
To keep up with your compliance under Australia’s WHS legislation, make sure you use a robust compliance management system like Conserve. For more information on the Model WHS laws and the OH&S Act of 2004, follow the links below:
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