What is workplace safety?

Workplace safety in Australia is governed by Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws that set duties on employers, workers, and others involved in work to ensure a safe working environment. The model WHS Act has been adopted by the federal jurisdiction and all states except Victoria, which retains its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 with similar requirements.

The primary duty of care under WHS laws falls on the Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU), usually the employer. The PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other people who could be affected by the work. This includes providing safe systems of work, safe equipment, training, supervision, consultation with workers, and facilities for welfare. Workers in turn must take reasonable care for their own safety and the safety of others, and must comply with reasonable instructions and policies.

Each jurisdiction has a regulator that enforces WHS laws. SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe WA, WorkSafe Tasmania, WorkSafe ACT, NT WorkSafe, and Comcare at the federal level all conduct workplace inspections, investigate incidents, issue improvement and prohibition notices, and prosecute serious breaches. Industrial manslaughter is now a criminal offence in most jurisdictions, with maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment or large corporate fines.

Workers also have specific WHS rights, including the right to stop work in cases of immediate risk to health, the right to elect Health and Safety Representatives, and the right to be consulted on decisions affecting safety. Many workers are entitled to workers' compensation if they are injured at work, administered by state-based schemes (icare in NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkCover Queensland, and equivalents in other states). Safe Work Australia, a tripartite national policy body, develops the model WHS laws and publishes guidance, codes of practice, and statistics on the about 200 work-related deaths and 130,000 serious injury claims that occur in Australia each year.