Health & Safety
OHS Act duties for employers: risk assessments, safety reps, first aid and incident reporting.
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An OHS Inspector Is at Your Door: What Happens Next
⚡ Quick answer OHS inspectors from the Department of Employment & Labour may enter your workplace without a warrant, examine the premises, equipment and documents, question employees, and take samples. Afterwards they can issue three escalating notices: a contravention notice (fix this), an improvement notice (fix this by a deadline), or a prohibition notice (stop this work now) — plus prosecution with fines or imprisonment for offences. Most inspections are triggered by complaints, reported incidents or sector blitzes. The inspection-ready file is short: risk assessment, appointments, training records, registers and incident reports, current and retrievable in minutes. The OHS inspection is the enforcement moment every employer vaguely fears and few…
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Your Workplace Risk Assessment in One Afternoon (No Consultant Needed)
⚡ Quick answer A small business can complete a credible workplace risk assessment in one afternoon with five steps: walk the workplace and list the hazards; note who could be harmed by each; rate each risk (likelihood times severity); choose controls using the hierarchy — eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, protect; and write it all down with owners and dates. The OHS Act does not prescribe the form — it requires that hazards are identified and controlled, and only a written, implemented, reviewed assessment proves you did it. The risk assessment has a reputation problem: it sounds like a consulting engagement with a binder at the end. For most small businesses…
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The 7-Day Incident Reporting Rule Most Employers Learn Too Late
⚡ Quick answer Section 24 of the OHS Act requires employers to report serious workplace incidents to the Department of Employment & Labour within 7 days: deaths, unconsciousness, lost limbs, injuries likely to be fatal or permanently disabling, and incapacity of 14 days or more. The scene of a fatal or serious incident must be preserved until the inspector allows it to be disturbed. This OHS report is separate from the COIDA injury claim — both are due, on parallel 7-day clocks, to different offices. There is a legal clock that starts the moment something goes seriously wrong at work — and most employers have never heard of it until…
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Is Your First-Aid Kit Legal? What the Regulations Actually Require
⚡ Quick answer A legal workplace first-aid kit is a stocked box matched to your workplace’s hazards — dressings, bandages, plasters, antiseptic, gloves, scissors, a CPR mouthpiece and more, with hazard-specific additions like eye-wash where chemicals are used. Boxes must be accessible, marked, and under a named person’s control, with monthly checks against a contents list. Once more than 10 employees are at work, you also need a certified first aider — one per 50 employees in shops and offices, one per 100 elsewhere. No medicines in the box, ever. The first-aid kit is the cheapest compliance item in the OHS Act — and one of the most common inspection…
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Crossed 20 Employees? You Now Need a Health and Safety Representative
⚡ Quick answer Once you employ more than 20 people, the OHS Act requires a designated health and safety representative: at least one per 100 employees in shops and offices, one per 50 in all other workplaces. The appointment must be in writing, for a defined area and period, made in consultation with employees — and the rep is entitled to training and reasonable paid time off to perform the role. Designate two or more reps and a health and safety committee becomes mandatory, meeting at least every three months with minutes kept. Growth changes your legal duties quietly — and one of the quietest thresholds is twenty-one. The day…
