What law applies
In order to understand the workplace health and safety requirements for construction work, and your obligations under the law you must consider and understand relevant legislation and codes of practice.
General health and safety obligations
What you must do
Specific regulations for construction
General health and safety obligations
To understand your obligations and safety requirements you must be familiar with the:
Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) which imposes obligations on people at workplaces to ensure workplace health and safety. The Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 also helps you to meet your workplace health and safety obligations through:
- The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 which describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which cause injury, illness or death
- codes of practice, which are designed to give practical advice about ways to manage exposure to common risks. In particular, the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 should be read in conjunction with information on PPE.
Every Queensland employer must have workers’ compensation insurance. Most employers insure with WorkCover Queensland, while a small number of large organisations have their own insurance. This insurance coverage ensures that employees injured at work receive financial support.
What you must do
It is a requirement of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 that risks must be assessed and control measures then implemented and reviewed to prevent or minimise exposure to the risks.
If the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the regulation says. If there is a code of practice that describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the code says or adopt and follow another way that gives the same level of protection against the risk.
If there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk at your workplace you must choose an appropriate way to manage exposure to the risk. People must, where there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk, take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence against the risk.
See the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 for further information.
Specific regulations for construction
Part 17 of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 1997 specifies particular requirements for construction work.
The regulations cover:
- principal contractor construction safety plans
- work method statements for high-risk construction activities including demolition work and asbestos removal
- general and site-specific induction
- housekeeping practices
- safety of plant provided for common use
- excavations (including trenches)
- working at heights (including work on roofs, from ladders and trestle ladder platforms, and work to erect or dismantle scaffolding)
- protecting people from falling objects
- workplace amenities.
On-the-spot fines are attached to the regulations. The amount of fines will reflect the severity of the breach.
For further information refer to the following:
- construction safety induction (30215QLD)
- asbestos removal
- Guide to safety in the civil construction industry (PDF, 2.2 mB)
- Concrete cutting and drilling guide (PDF, 511 KB)
- Concrete Pumping Code of Practice 2005
- construction diving
- scaffolding, dogging and rigging licences
- cranes and hoists licences
- prescribed occupations
- Formwork Code of Practice 2006
- Scaffolding Advisory Standard 2004 (now known as a Code of Practice)
- Steel Construction Advisory Standard 2004 (now known as a Code of Practice)
- Tilt-up and Pre-cast Construction Code of Practice 2003
- Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2006 (796KB)
- Tower Crane Code of Practice 2006 (673KB).
Please note, from 18 November 2004 the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 was amended so that:
- all advisory standards that were in force on that day were continued as codes of practice and now expire 10 years after their commencement; and
- all existing industry codes of practice that were in force on that day now
expire 10 years after their commencement.
Refer to the Falling objects and construction work - Legislative application (PDF, 147 KB) to determine principal contractor and relevant persons compliance with obligations for falling object risks.
Last updated 22 July 2008
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