Australian Work Health and Safety Principles
Shared duties between the cleaning contractor, the client site and the worker, the Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice, and how consultation works when you rarely see a supervisor.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Cleaning and Facilities Staff
Key learning points
- Describe the duties of a PCBU and of a worker under Australian WHS law
- Explain how duties are shared between a cleaning contractor and the client or site
- Recognise the role of the Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice
- Understand why workplace and site procedures always take precedence
- Take part in consultation and reporting even when working alone
Shared responsibility across two organisations
Australian work health and safety law is built on shared responsibility. The organisation running a business — described in the model WHS laws as a person conducting a business or undertaking, or PCBU — carries the primary duty to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. Workers carry duties too. In contract cleaning there are usually two PCBUs at once: the cleaning contractor who employs you, and the client or building owner whose site you work on. Both hold duties towards you, and the law expects them to consult, co-operate and co-ordinate with each other.
What the cleaning contractor is generally expected to do
- Identify hazardous manual tasks in the work it contracts for and put controls in place
- Supply suitable equipment — carts, mop systems, vacuums, trolleys — and keep it maintained
- Provide information, training, instruction and supervision, including a site induction
- Set workloads and area targets that can be met without skipping controls
- Consult workers and have a way for them to report hazards, incidents and faulty equipment
What the client or site is generally expected to do
- Provide safe access — working lifts, lit stairwells, unblocked corridors and bin rooms
- Tell the contractor about site hazards and arrangements, such as where waste goes and when lifts are locked off
- Provide and maintain what it owns: bins, skips, compactors, bin lifters, cleaner's sinks and storerooms
- Co-operate with the contractor on controls, for example central waste points or furniture-clearing before cleaning
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 building occupants who walk on the floor you just mopped
- Comply with reasonable instructions, policies and procedures from the employer and the site
- Use equipment correctly and only when trained and authorised
- Report hazards, incidents, near misses, injuries and faulty equipment
The law and the Code of Practice
Most states and territories have adopted the model Work Health and Safety Act and Regulations developed by Safe Work Australia, administered locally by regulators such as SafeWork NSW, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, WorkSafe WA, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe Tasmania, WorkSafe ACT and NT WorkSafe. Victoria has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, regulated by WorkSafe Victoria, which uses the words employer and employee rather than PCBU and worker but imposes very similar duties, including specific regulations on hazardous manual handling.
The model Code of Practice: Hazardous Manual Tasks, published by Safe Work Australia and adopted in most jurisdictions, sets out how a PCBU is expected to identify, assess and control manual task risk. It is the source of the risk factors and the risk management approach used throughout this course. A code of practice is not law in itself, but it is admissible in proceedings as evidence of what is known about a hazard and what is reasonably practicable. If your employer follows it, they are on solid ground; if you know its contents, you know what to expect and what to ask for.
Follow your workplace and the site
Your employer's safe work procedures, safe work method statements and the site's own rules always take precedence over this course. Where the client's rules and your employer's procedures differ, or where either differs from this training, follow the more protective instruction for the moment and raise the difference with your supervisor or contract manager.
Consultation when you rarely see a supervisor
Consultation means workers get a genuine say in decisions that affect their safety. On a night contract you may see your supervisor once a fortnight, so consultation happens through toolbox talks, site diaries, a messaging group, a phone call or an app. The channel does not matter; what matters is that the people doing the work — who are the first to notice a cart that will not steer, a bin room with no ramp or a target that cannot be met — say so, and that someone acts on it. A health and safety representative, if your workplace has one, exists to carry those issues forward.
Requirements differ
Work health and safety requirements, regulators and codes of practice can differ between Australian states and territories, and between employers, clients and individual sites. This course provides general education only and is not legal advice about your circumstances.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the extra job
A tenant's office manager asks you to carry twelve archive boxes and a small filing cabinet down to the basement storage while you are on site, because the movers cancelled. It is not in your cleaning scope and there is no trolley in the storeroom.
What is the appropriate response?
Reveal the explanation
Politely decline and explain that it is outside your work scope and that you do not have the equipment for it. Contact your supervisor or contract manager so they can respond to the client. The task may well be arranged safely — with a trolley, two people and time allowed — but improvising it alone at night, with no assessment and no equipment, is exactly the kind of one-off job that produces serious injuries. Neither the client nor your employer can meet their duties if the work is done informally.
Practical scenario
Scenario: whose bin room is it?
The bin room at a shopping centre has a 100 millimetre step at the doorway. Cleaners have to lift each loaded 240 litre wheelie bin over it twice a night. The contractor says the building is the client's problem; the centre says the cleaners are the contractor's staff.
Who has to fix it?
Reveal the explanation
Both. Each is a PCBU with a duty towards the workers exposed to the hazard, and the WHS laws require duty holders who share a workplace to consult, co-operate and co-ordinate. Your job is to report it clearly through your employer's channel and, if the site has a contact, to them as well. A ramp is a cheap engineering control; in the meantime a two-person procedure or a different waste route is an interim administrative control. A dispute about ownership is not a reason for the hazard to remain.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. You are a contract cleaner working on a client's site. Who holds WHS duties towards you?
The contractor and the client each hold duties as PCBUs and must consult and co-ordinate with each other. Workers also carry duties to take reasonable care and follow reasonable instructions.
2. A site rule differs from what you read in this course. What should you do?
Workplace and site procedures reflect the actual building, equipment and arrangements. They take precedence, and any conflict should be escalated rather than resolved on your own.
3. What is the model Code of Practice: Hazardous Manual Tasks?
The Code sets out the risk factors and the risk management process. It is guidance rather than law in itself, but it is admissible as evidence of what is reasonably practicable.
4. You work alone on a night contract and see your supervisor rarely. How does consultation work for you?
Consultation is a duty regardless of the shift pattern. The channel can be informal, but the worker's observations must reach someone who can act on them.
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