Occupational health and safety in Victoria, with the evidence for every duty.

An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide and maintain for its employees a working environment that is safe and without risks to health. That includes safe plant and systems of work; safety in the use, handling, storage and transport of plant and substances; safe workplaces under its management and control; adequate welfare facilities; and the information, instruction, training and supervision employees need to work safely. These duties extend to independent contractors the employer engages, and their employees, for matters the employer controls. An employer must also ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that people other than its employees are not exposed to risks to their health or safety from its undertaking, and a self-employed person must ensure the same for anyone affected by their undertaking.

ss 21(1)–(3), 23(1), 24(1)

None in Victoria. Instead, under s 144 an officer of a body corporate is guilty of an offence when the body corporate contravenes the Act or the Regulations and the contravention is attributable to the officer failing to take reasonable care (the Victoria-only control vic.officer-liability).

Part 3 (ss 20–34) and s 144

While at work, an employee must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and for the health and safety of people who may be affected by their acts or omissions at a workplace, and cooperate with their employer's actions to comply with the Act or the Regulations. An employee must not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided at the workplace for health, safety or welfare.

s 25(1)–(2)

None in Victoria. Part 3's duties fall on employers, self-employed persons, employees, persons who manage or control workplaces, and designers, manufacturers, suppliers and installers. Separately, s 32 makes it an offence for any person, without lawful excuse, to recklessly engage in conduct that places or may place another person at a workplace in danger of serious injury.

Part 3 (ss 20–34)

Victoria calls the offence workplace manslaughter. A person who is not a volunteer commits it if their negligent conduct breaches an applicable duty under Part 3 that they owe another person and causes that person's death. An officer of a body corporate, partnership or unincorporated body commits it if their own negligent conduct breaches a duty the entity owes and causes a death. Conduct is negligent if it falls greatly short of the care a reasonable person (or a reasonable body corporate) would take and involves a high risk of death, serious injury or serious illness. The employee duties in s 25 are not applicable duties. The maximum penalty is 25 years' imprisonment for a natural person or 100,000 penalty units for a body corporate.

ss 39B, 39E, 39G(1)–(3)

Victoria's Act has no general duty to consult other duty holders; its duty covers labour hire. Where a person is taken to be the employer of a labour hire worker under s 5A, and one or more others also have a duty to the same worker, each of them must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate activities with each other.

s 35A(1)–(2)

An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult the employees (including independent contractors it engages and their employees) who are or are likely to be directly affected when it identifies or assesses hazards or risks; decides on measures to control risks; decides on the adequacy of welfare facilities; decides on procedures for resolving health and safety issues, consulting employees, monitoring health and workplace conditions, and providing information and training; determines the membership of a health and safety committee; or proposes changes to a workplace, plant, substances or work that may affect health or safety. Consulting means sharing information about the matter, giving employees a reasonable opportunity to express their views, and taking those views into account. It must involve the health and safety representative where employees have one, and follow any agreed consultation procedures.

s 35(1)–(5)

An employee may ask their employer to establish designated work groups, and the employer must do everything reasonable to ensure negotiations start within 14 days of the request. The members of each designated work group elect its health and safety representative. On a representative's request, the employer must let them attend an initial course of training and a yearly refresher course approved or conducted by the Authority, with paid time off and the course costs paid. The employer must give representatives access to its information about hazards and about the group's health and safety (medical information only with the employee's consent or in a form that doesn't identify them), allow paid time off and the facilities and assistance they need, and keep an up-to-date written list of representatives and deputies that is displayed at each workplace or otherwise readily accessible to all employees.

ss 43(1)–(3), 54(1), 67(1)–(4), 69(1)–(2), 71

An employer must establish a health and safety committee within 3 months after a health and safety representative asks for one, or when the Regulations require one. At least half its members must be employees of the employer (so far as practicable, health and safety representatives or deputies). The committee must meet at least once every 3 months, and at any other time at least half its members require.

s 72(1), (2), (4)

When a health or safety issue arises, the employer (or its representative) and the affected employees, or their health and safety representative, must try to resolve it under the agreed procedure or, if there is none, the procedure in the Regulations. The employer's representative must not be a health and safety representative and must be senior and competent enough to act. Under the procedure in the Regulations, the employer tells employees, representatives and any committee whether it will take part personally or name a representative; the parties meet as soon as reasonably possible after an issue is reported; the employer sets out the issue and its resolution in writing if a party asks; and details of any agreement are brought to the affected employees and sent to any health and safety committee.

s 73(1)–(2), with Regulations regs 22–25

The incident duties apply to an incident that results in a death; a person needing medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance; a person needing immediate treatment as a hospital in-patient; a person needing immediate medical treatment for an amputation, a serious head or eye injury, degloving or scalping, electric shock, a spinal injury, loss of a bodily function or serious lacerations; or another prescribed injury. They also apply to an incident that exposes a person to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent exposure to such things as an uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance, an implosion, explosion or fire, electric shock, something falling or released from height, the collapse or failure of prescribed or registered plant, the collapse of a building, structure or excavation, and to prescribed illnesses.

s 37(1), (2), (2A), (3)

An employer or self-employed person must notify the Authority (WorkSafe) immediately after becoming aware that such an incident has occurred at a workplace under its management and control, unless it is the only person injured, harmed or exposed to risk. Within 48 hours after being required to notify, it must also give the Authority a written record of the incident in the form the Authority has approved. Unlike the model WHS laws, the written record is always required.

s 38(1)–(3)

An employer or self-employed person that must notify an incident must ensure the site is not disturbed until an inspector arrives, or until a time an inspector directs when the incident is notified. The site may be disturbed to protect a person's health or safety, to help an injured person, or to take essential action to make the site safe or prevent a further incident.

s 39(1)–(2)

Keep a copy of the written record of each notified incident for at least 5 years, and make it available for inspection by an inspector; a person injured or exposed to serious risk in the incident, or their representative; a representative of a person whose death it caused; and, for an employer, the health and safety representative of an affected designated work group and the members of each health and safety committee.

s 38(4)

A duty under Part 3 or the Regulations to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable requires eliminating risks so far as is reasonably practicable and, if that is not reasonably practicable, reducing them so far as is reasonably practicable. What is reasonably practicable depends on the likelihood of the hazard or risk eventuating, the degree of harm, what the person knows or ought reasonably to know about it and ways of eliminating or reducing it, the availability and suitability of those ways, and their cost.

s 20(1)–(2)

An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, identify psychosocial hazards and eliminate the risks associated with them. Where elimination isn't reasonably practicable, it must reduce the risk so far as is reasonably practicable by altering the management of work, plant, systems of work, work design or the workplace environment. Information, instruction or training may be used on its own only if none of those is reasonably practicable, and must not be the main measure in a combination. The employer must review and, if necessary, revise its controls before changes likely to affect psychosocial risks, when new information becomes available, when a psychological injury or psychosocial hazard is reported, after a Part 5 incident involving psychosocial hazards, when controls don't adequately control the risks, and when a health and safety representative asks.

regs 4 (psychosocial hazard), 14, 15(1)–(4), 16(1)

An employer must provide its employees, and independent contractors it engages and their employees, with the information, instruction, training or supervision necessary for them to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health.

s 21(2)(e), (3)

An employer must ensure construction induction training is provided to a person it employs to perform construction work who doesn't hold a current construction induction card. A person must not perform construction work at a workplace without a current construction induction card, and an employer must not knowingly allow a person it employs (including a work experience placement) to do so, subject to the exemptions in reg 342.

regs 339(1), 340, 341(1)–(2)

None in Victoria as a separate duty. The employer's duty to provide adequate facilities for the welfare of employees (s 21(2)(d)) applies, and particular regulations require first aid within emergency procedures, for falls (reg 49) and confined spaces (reg 69).

s 21(2)(d)

None in Victoria as a general duty. The 2017 Regulations require emergency procedures for particular work instead: falls, where fall risk is controlled with a passive fall prevention device, work positioning system, fall arrest system, ladder or administrative controls (reg 49), confined spaces (reg 69) and construction work with a risk of engulfment (reg 331).

regs 49, 69, 331

Victoria calls them hazardous substances. An employer must prepare and maintain a register of all hazardous substances supplied to its workplace, listing each one's product identifier with a copy of its safety data sheet, and keep it readily accessible to any employee who may be exposed. A retailer or retail warehouse operator need not list substances in consumer packages intended for retail sale and not opened on its premises.

reg 162(1)–(4)

A person must not perform high risk work unless they hold an appropriate high risk work licence for it, and an employer must not allow an employee to perform high risk work unless the employee holds one.

regs 128, 129

An employer or self-employed person must not perform high risk construction work that poses a risk to anyone's health or safety unless a safe work method statement is prepared before the work starts and the work is done in accordance with it. If the statement isn't followed, the work must stop immediately or as soon as it is safe, and not resume until the statement is complied with or reviewed and revised. The statement must be reviewed and, if necessary, revised whenever the work changes or its controls are not adequately controlling the risks (including after an incident), and a copy kept for the duration of the work. High risk construction work includes work with a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres, demolition, work disturbing asbestos, trenches or shafts deeper than 1.5 metres, and work where powered mobile plant moves.

regs 322, 324, 327(1)–(2), 328, 329

At a workplace where asbestos is present, the person who manages or controls the workplace must, so far as is reasonably practicable, identify the asbestos under their management or control (assuming it is present, or having a sample analysed, where uncertain), and record the results in an asbestos register with its location, type and condition, inaccessible areas likely to contain it, and the date of each identification. They must keep the register current, review it at least every 5 years, and give copies or access to employers and self-employed persons at the workplace, licensed asbestos removalists and people engaged to do work there that risks exposure. Domestic premises that are a workplace only because of contracted work are excluded.

regs 225, 226(1)–(4), 227, 228, 229