Australian Work Health and Safety Principles
Shared responsibilities, workplace procedures, consultation and reporting — explained in plain language.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers
Key learning points
- Describe the general duties of employers (PCBUs) and workers
- Explain why following workplace procedures matters
- Understand consultation, training and supervision
- Recognise that requirements can differ between workplaces and jurisdictions
- Outline the legal framework and codes of practice
- Explain when a worker may stop unsafe work
Shared responsibility
Australian work health and safety law is built on shared responsibility. The organisation running the business — often called the person conducting a business or undertaking, or PCBU — carries the primary duty. Workers also carry duties, and neither can manage safety alone.
The legal framework
Every state and territory except Victoria runs its own version of the model WHS laws, and regulation 60 of the model WHS Regulations requires businesses to manage the risk of musculoskeletal disorders from hazardous manual tasks. Victoria has its own OHS Act 2004, OHS Regulations 2017 (Part 3.1) and WorkSafe Victoria's Compliance code: Hazardous manual handling. The duties are similar, but Victorian procedures say 'OHS' and 'employer' rather than 'WHS' and 'PCBU'.
Employer and worker duties
The PCBU's duty includes providing the information, training, instruction or supervision needed to protect people from risks arising from the work (model WHS Act, section 19(3)(f)). It applies wherever you work, including a client's home and a vehicle between clients, and SafeWork NSW notes that both the agency and the host owe duties to agency staff.
What your employer is generally expected to do
- Provide and maintain a working environment that is safe, so far as is reasonably practicable
- Identify hazardous manual tasks and put risk controls in place
- Provide suitable equipment such as hoists, slide sheets and adjustable beds, and keep it maintained
- Provide information, training, instruction and supervision
- Consult workers about health and safety matters that affect them
- Have systems for reporting hazards, incidents and equipment faults
Worker duties apply to everyone, not only nurses and managers. Section 28 of the model WHS Act requires workers to take reasonable care and comply with reasonable instructions, and the Aged Care Code of Conduct requires workers to deliver care safely and competently and to raise concerns about quality and safety promptly.
What a worker is generally expected to do
- Take reasonable care for their own health and safety
- Take reasonable care that their actions do not harm others, including residents and colleagues
- Comply with reasonable instructions given by the employer
- Co-operate with reasonable workplace policies and procedures
- Use equipment correctly and only when trained and authorised
- Report hazards, incidents, near misses and faulty equipment
Stopping unsafe work
Under the model WHS laws (section 84), a worker may cease or refuse work if they have a reasonable concern that it would expose them to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard. They must notify the PCBU as soon as practicable and remain available for suitable alternative work. Victoria's law differs, so follow your employer's procedure there.
Stopping is not leaving
Usually, stopping means following procedure: if the plan says two staff and you are alone, the task waits. Keep the person safe and comfortable, get help, offer what can safely be done, and report it.
Codes of practice
Codes of practice, such as the Hazardous manual tasks code, give practical guidance on meeting the duties; WorkSafe ACT notes they are admissible in court as evidence of what is reasonably practicable. Queensland (since 1 July 2018) and NSW (section 26A of its WHS Act, since 1 July 2026) require duty holders to follow approved codes or an equivalent or better method. Queensland's people handling code says no worker should fully lift a person, other than a small infant, unaided.
Procedures and care plans
In aged care, safety instructions usually reach you through two documents: the organisation's safe work procedures and the person's care plan or mobility plan. Together they set how a task is done, with what equipment and by how many staff.
The Aged Care Quality Standards require care plans to describe the person's current needs, include risk strategies, be reviewed regularly and be used to guide care. If the plan no longer fits the person, do not change the method yourself: stop, keep them safe and tell the registered nurse or supervisor.
Follow your workplace
Workers should always follow their employer's workplace-specific policies, procedures and instructions. Where this course and your workplace procedure differ, follow your workplace procedure and raise the difference with your supervisor.
Consultation
Consultation means workers get a genuine say in decisions that affect their safety. The people performing a task usually see the problems first — a hoist that is hard to steer, a bathroom that is too small. Raising them is part of the safety system, not a complaint.
Health and safety representatives (HSRs), elected by their colleagues, can take issues further, but they do not replace your own report. In Victoria, regulation 28 requires the employer to review its manual handling controls when an HSR asks.
Requirements differ
Work health and safety requirements, regulators and codes of practice can differ between Australian states and territories, and between employers and individual workplaces. This course provides general education only and is not legal advice about your circumstances.
Practical scenario
Scenario: an instruction you are unsure about
A colleague tells you the quickest way to move a resident up the bed is for two staff to hook under the resident's arms and drag. You have not seen this in the care plan.
What is the appropriate response?
Reveal the explanation
Do not perform it. Under-arm drag lifts are widely discouraged because of injury risk to the worker and to the resident's shoulders and skin. Check the care plan and the workplace procedure, use the equipment specified (commonly a slide sheet), and raise the practice with your supervisor.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the flat hoist battery
At a client's home, her care plan says she is transferred with the mobile hoist, but its battery is flat. Her son offers to help you lift her out of bed.
Do WHS duties apply here, and what should you do?
Reveal the explanation
Yes. The home is your workplace, so your employer's duties and your own apply there. Do not lift her, with or without her son. Keep her safe and comfortable, offer the care that can be done in bed, contact your coordinator, and report the flat battery.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which of the following is a worker's duty under Australian WHS principles?
Workers must take reasonable care for themselves and others and co-operate with reasonable policies and instructions. Providing equipment and procedures is the employer's duty.
2. A workplace procedure conflicts with something you read in a general online course. What should you do?
Workplace-specific procedures reflect the actual environment, equipment and residents. Follow them and escalate any concern.
3. Consultation in work health and safety means:
Consultation is a two-way process. Workers doing the task hold practical knowledge that improves risk controls.
Sources and further reading
The framework this module summarises, from the regulators themselves. Your workplace procedures always take precedence.
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks — The national code the state and territory regulators adopt or mirror.
- Safe Work Australia — Lifting, pushing and pulling (manual tasks)
- Safe Work Australia — Model WHS laws
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — Provider standards that sit alongside WHS duties in aged care.