Who is responsible for workplace safety and health?

Under the model WHS laws, the main responsibility for workplace health and safety sits with the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). Officers, workers and others at the workplace have their own duties, and those duties overlap. The PCBU has the primary duty of care under section 19 of the WHS Act, but everyone who makes decisions or does the work has a part to play in keeping people safe.

If you run a business, you need to know which duties are yours, which belong to the people you manage and which are shared. This guide sets out each role, what it must do and where the roles overlap.

The PCBU carries the primary duty

A PCBU is any business or undertaking, large or small, and the people or organisations that run it. That includes companies, partnerships, sole traders, government bodies and, on a site, a contractor who runs its own work. A PCBU must, so far as is reasonably practicable, keep workers and others safe from risks that arise from the work.

"So far as is reasonably practicable" is a test, not a loophole. When you decide what is reasonably practicable, you weigh:

• how likely the harm is and how serious it could be
• what you know about the hazard and the ways to control it
• what options are available, and how well they work
• what the controls cost, compared with the risk

The PCBU also has to manage the risks in a way that a reasonable business would. In practice that means identifying hazards, assessing risks, putting controls in place, checking they work and reviewing them when something changes. Our guide to how to conduct a workplace hazard assessment walks through that process.

Officers have their own due diligence duty

An officer is someone who makes, or takes part in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business. That usually means directors, and it can also mean senior managers. Officers don't carry the PCBU's duty, but they have their own. Under section 27, an officer must exercise due diligence to make sure the business meets its WHS duties.

Due diligence means taking reasonable steps to:

1. understand the work health and safety risks of the business, and keep that knowledge up to date
2. understand the hazards and the controls for the main work the business does
3. provide the resources and processes the business needs to manage those risks
4. receive reports of incidents, hazards and risks, and respond to them
5. check that the business is meeting its duties, and that the controls work

Officers can't hand this off by saying a manager was in charge. They need to show they asked the right questions and acted on the answers. Most jurisdictions now have industrial manslaughter offences, which can apply to officers in the most serious cases.

Workers have duties too

Workers have their own duties under section 28 of the WHS Act. A worker must take reasonable care of their own health and safety, and make sure their actions or omissions don't harm others. They must also follow reasonable instructions and the workplace's safety policies and procedures, and cooperate with the PCBU on safety.

Workers also have a voice. They can raise concerns, take part in consultation and report incidents, and they're protected from unfair treatment for doing so. A worker who follows the rules and speaks up isn't the one who gets blamed when a safety system fails.

Consultation and representation

The PCBU must consult workers on health and safety matters that affect them. Section 47 sets out the duty, and it applies when you're planning a change to a process, buying new plant or working out how to manage a hazard. Consultation is two-way. It means sharing the information workers need, listening to what they say and acting on it.

Several structures support consultation. The table below shows what each one does.

The PCBU must support HSRs. That includes giving them access to information about hazards, the time and resources to do the role, and training. A PCBU must not treat an HSR unfairly for doing the job. HSRs can also go with an inspector on an inspection.

An HSC can be useful for larger sites or work groups, because it puts all the perspectives in one room. Our issue resolution policy and consultation policy set out how concerns are raised and handled, and a worker consultation record keeps a record of what was discussed.

Other people who play a part

Other roles support WHS management but don't carry the same legal duties:

• WHS consultants advise on compliance and help write procedures.
• Safety auditors check the safety management system and recommend improvements.
• Safety inspectors are government officers who can enter workplaces, investigate complaints and issue notices.
• Occupational hygienists assess exposure to airborne and other workplace hazards.
• Ergonomists design tasks and workstations to suit the worker and reduce strain.
• Risk managers develop and run the organisation's risk process.
• First aiders provide first aid until more help arrives.
• Floor wardens coordinate evacuation in an emergency.

Hiring one of these people doesn't move your duty to them. Duties can't be transferred to someone else under section 14, so you still have to make sure the work is done and the controls are in place.

Where the duties overlap: contractors and sites

On a construction or multi-employer site, more than one PCBU can have duties for the same work. The principal contractor, subcontractors, labour hire firms and the host business each have their own duties, and they must work together. A worker can have several PCBUs owing them duties at the same time.

Agree who does what before the work starts. Put it in writing, usually in the site's management plan and the SWMS for each task. Our guide to managing contractors and their WHS documents covers the practical steps.

What's changed recently

Work health and safety law is not uniform across Australia. Victoria still has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and OHS Regulations 2017, and it uses OHS terms instead of WHS. Western Australia adopted the model WHS laws from 31 March 2022.

The model WHS laws have also grown. The model Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards came out in 2022, so psychosocial risks like bullying, fatigue and high workloads now sit squarely within the PCBU's duties. Engineered stone has been banned since 1 July 2024, which changed how many businesses work with stone benchtops. Check the rules in your own state or territory, because the detail differs.

How SafetyDocs helps

Most WHS problems come from roles nobody wrote down. SafetyDocs has policies, plans and procedures that name who is responsible for each step, from consultation and issue resolution to psychosocial hazards. Job, client and site details fill themselves in, and when a policy changes, everyone who signed the old version is asked to sign the new one.

These documents help you show who does what. They don't make your business compliant on their own. The duties still have to be carried out.

For psychosocial risks, our psychosocial hazards management plan is a starting point. The psychosocial hazards in the workplace guide explains the risks it covers.

Common questions

Who is the PCBU on a building site? Usually the principal contractor and each subcontractor. Each PCBU has duties for the work it controls, and the principal contractor also has duties for the site as a whole. Agree the split in writing before work starts.

Are HSRs required in every workplace? Not automatically. Workers in a work group can request an HSR, and once they do the PCBU must arrange an election. Check your state or territory rules for the detail.

Can an officer be held responsible if they didn't know about the incident? They can be, if they didn't take reasonable steps to understand the risks and check that the controls worked. Knowing about the incident isn't the test. The test is whether they did their due diligence.

Do my workers have to follow safety rules I've made? Yes, so far as the rules are reasonable and they're told about them. Workers must follow reasonable instructions and procedures, and they can raise concerns about them through consultation.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law with your WHS regulator.