WHS Act Responsibilities — PCBU, Workers & HSR Roles

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) provides the harmonised national framework for work health and safety across Australia. It applies in NSW, Queensland, the ACT, NT, Tasmania, and South Australia, with Victoria and Western Australia operating under similar model legislation. The WHS Act defines who has duties, what those duties are, and the rights of workers to participate in safety. Understanding these responsibilities is essential for your White Card test and for working safely in the construction industry.

Duty of Care

The primary duty of care under the WHS Act requires a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others who may be affected by the work. This duty extends to workers engaged or caused to be engaged by the PCBU, and to workers whose work activities are influenced or directed by the PCBU.

Reasonable practicability balances the likelihood and severity of harm against the effort, cost, and feasibility of eliminating or minimising the risk. A duty holder must consider what a reasonable person would do in the circumstances. Higher risks require stronger controls; trivial risks may not require extensive measures. The duty is not absolute—it is qualified by what is reasonably practicable—but it requires a proactive approach to managing risks.

PCBU Responsibilities

A PCBU is a person or organisation that conducts a business or undertaking. This includes employers, principal contractors, subcontractors, and self-employed persons. PCBUs must provide and maintain a safe work environment, safe systems of work, and adequate facilities. They must ensure that plant, structures, and substances are safe when properly used. PCBUs must provide any information, instruction, training, or supervision necessary to protect workers from risks.

PCBUs must also consult with workers—and with Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) if they exist—on matters that affect health and safety. Consultation is not a formality; it must be genuine and occur when identifying hazards, making decisions about controls, proposing changes that affect safety, and making decisions about procedures for consultation, resolving issues, monitoring worker health, and providing information and training. Construction sites often have multiple PCBUs (e.g. principal contractor and subcontractors) who must consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities to meet their shared duties.

Officer Duties

Officers—including directors, company secretaries, and people who make or participate in decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business—have a positive duty to exercise due diligence. Due diligence means taking reasonable steps to acquire and keep up to date with knowledge of work health and safety matters, understand the hazards and risks of the operations, and ensure the PCBU has and uses appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks.

Officers must ensure the PCBU has processes for receiving and considering information about incidents, hazards, and risks, and for complying with legal duties. They must verify that these resources and processes are used. This duty cannot be delegated. Officers who fail to exercise due diligence may face prosecution even if the PCBU has breached its duties.

Worker Rights and Obligations

Workers have both rights and obligations under the WHS Act. They have the right to a safe workplace so far as the PCBU can make it reasonably practicable. They have the right to representation and participation in health and safety matters. They have the right to refuse or cease unsafe work in certain circumstances and are protected from discrimination for doing so.

Workers also have obligations. They must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and for the health and safety of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions. They must comply with reasonable instructions and policies and procedures relating to health and safety. They must cooperate with the PCBU in relation to safety measures. Failure to meet these obligations can result in enforcement action.

Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs)

Health and Safety Representatives are workers elected by their work group to represent them on health and safety matters. HSRs have specific powers under the WHS Act. They may inspect the workplace, or any part of it, after giving reasonable notice (or without notice in the case of an immediate risk). They may accompany a WorkCover or regulator inspector during an inspection. They may represent the work group in consultation with the PCBU.

HSRs may direct a worker to cease work if they have a reasonable belief that carrying out the work would expose someone to a serious risk to health and safety emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard. The HSR must have completed approved training to exercise this power. The PCBU must not discriminate against or victimise an HSR for carrying out their role. HSRs are a key mechanism for worker participation in safety on construction sites.

Incident Reporting

PCBUs must notify the regulator as soon as they become aware of a notifiable incident. Notifiable incidents include the death of a person, a serious injury or illness (such as amputation, serious head or eye injury, spinal injury, loss of bodily function, or burns requiring hospitalisation), or a dangerous incident (such as collapse of scaffolding, explosion, fire, spill or escape of a hazardous substance, or failure of load-bearing plant).

The person with management or control of the workplace must preserve the incident site until an inspector arrives or authorises release, unless it is necessary to help an injured person or make the site safe. Disturbing the site can hinder the investigation and may amount to an offence. Workers should report all incidents and near misses to their supervisor or PCBU so that hazards can be addressed and regulatory obligations can be met.

Right to Cease Unsafe Work

A worker may cease work, or refuse to carry out work, if they have a reasonable concern that performing the work would expose them (or someone else) to a serious risk to health or safety emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard. The worker must notify the PCBU as soon as practicable and remain available to perform alternative work unless it would pose the same risk.

The PCBU must not discriminate against or victimise the worker for ceasing work in these circumstances. This protection extends to refusing to perform work, ceasing work, or performing work in a way that reduces the risk. Workers should not abuse this right—the concern must be reasonable and the risk serious and imminent. The WHS Act 2011 provides this important safeguard to encourage workers to speak up when they believe their safety is at risk.