Work Health & Safety in the Workplace

The harmonisation of various State & Territory safety laws is now over 1 year on, with NSW, Qld, ACT , NT, SA, Tas and The Commonwealth (Comcare) having introduced new Work Health & Safety laws. The new laws have adopted a uniform model of legislation, regulations & codes of practice.

At this it is still uncertain when Victoria & Western Australia will adopt some or all of the model provisions to achieve harmonisation of our WH&S laws.

10 key changes under the WHS Act

The 10 most significant changes that employers should be aware of include:

1. New and important definitions that have been introduced, including:
   • what reasonably practicable steps are;
   • how an employer is defined, now referred to as a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking); and
   • what an officer is
2. Primary duty of care
3. New positive duty of care on officers to exercise due diligence
4. Increase in penalties
5. New role of health and safety representatives
6. Health and safety committees
7. Broader consultation requirements
8. Wider right of entry for the unions
9. Notification of incidents
10. Investigations by inspectors

For further details, please contact David Fuller. Alternatively, you can go to the relevant state or territory WH&S site for more details.