Meeting your obligations
Under the industrial relations legislation
Under the electrical safety legislation
Under the workplace health and safety legislation
Under the industrial relations legislation
Whether you are an employer or an employee, you must meet your obligations by fulfilling the requirements of the Industrial Relations Act 1999 (PDF, 1.9 MB) and any applicable award or agreement.
Under the electrical safety legislation
Under the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (PDF, 788 KB) there are three ways you can meet your electrical safety obligation, through:
- regulations
- ministerial notices
- codes of practice.
If the regulation prescribes a way of discharging your electrical safety obligation, you will fail to meet your obligation if you contravene the regulation.
If a ministerial notice prescribes a way of meeting an electrical safety obligation in relation to an electrical risk, you will fail to meet that obligation if you contravene the ministerial notice.
If a code of practice states a way of meeting your electrical safety obligation, you will fail to meet that obligation if you:
- contravene the code, or act in a way that is inconsistent with the code
- do not follow a way that is equally effective as, or more effective than the code of practice.
Codes of practice provide guidance on ways you may discharge your obligations for electrical safety.
If there is no regulation, ministerial notice or code of practice that exists that tells you how to meet your obligation under the circumstances then choose an appropriate way, take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence to discharge your electrical safety obligation.
Under the workplace health and safety legislation
You can meet your workplace health and safety obligations by following the law.
- If a regulation or ministerial notice tells you how to prevent or minimise exposure to a risk, you must comply.
- If a regulation or ministerial notice prohibits exposure to a risk, you must comply.
- If a code of practice states a way of managing exposure to a risk, you must adopt and follow that approach or one that gives you at least the same level of protection against the risk.
If there is no regulation, ministerial notice or code of practice to guide you in managing a particular risk or preventing exposure to it, you still have a workplace health and safety obligation. You can meet your obligation by taking reasonable precautions and exercising due care in your work activities.
Otherwise you are breaching the law. Penalties may be imposed for breaching the workplace health and safety laws.
See the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 for further information.
Protection for speaking up
As a workplace health and safety officer, workplace health and safety representative or as a worker, you may have a concern about a workplace health and safety issue at your workplace.
The Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) encourages you to speak up, protecting you from victimisation.
Amendments to the Act in 2003 particularly protect:
- workplace health and safety officers
- workplace health and safety representatives
- members of a workplace health and safety committee.
By law, an employer cannot dismiss or victimise you for:
- making a complaint about an issue concerning exposure to a risk of illness of injury
- contacting or helping a workplace health and safety inspector.
Refer to Section 174 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 for more information.
Last updated October 19, 2006