The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) - Responsibilities

Ensuring businesses work together for everyone’s health and safety is a fundamental part of The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) design.

PCBU’s working together

Key points:

You must consult. Cooperate and coordinate with other PCBU’s when working in a shared workplace, or as part of a contracting chain.
You can’t contract out of health and safety duties.
You should always build health and safety into contract management.

The meaning of overlapping duties:

When two or more businesses operate together, for example at the same location or in a contracting arrangement, they must work together to fulfil their primary duties of care.
Where work overlaps, businesses need to communicate, consult, cooperate and coordinate activities to meet their health and safety responsibilities to workers and others, so far as is reasonably practicable.
A business cannot contract out its duties. However, reasonable arrangements can be made with the other businesses to fulfil its duty, taking into account the level of influence or control each has over the overlapping work.

Why businesses need to consult:

Under HSWA, businesses have responsibilities for all workers and others affected by their work – not just those they directly employ or engage. Issues arise when:

there is a lack of understanding about how the work of each business may add to the health and safety risks in the workplace as a whole or in a chain of work activities.
one business assumes the other business is taking care of a particular health or safety issue.
the business who manages the risk is not the one in the best position to do so.
businesses do not know what other work is happening and when.
Consultation means businesses can avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and help prevent gaps in managing health and safety risks by establishing clear roles and responsibilities.

Tips for effective consultation:

Plan ahead, think about the stages of your work and who will be affected by it.
Identify the risks to be managed and together agree how to control those risks and who is best placed to do so.
Define roles, responsibilities and actions, and explain these to workers and other businesses so they know what to expect.
Carry out reasonable and proportionate monitoring to ensure health and safety risk management is maintained.

Upstream activities

In addition to their primary duty of care, there are now specific duties on businesses that are upstream in the supply chain (eg architects, engineers, manufacturers and importers).
Upstream businesses who design, manufacture, import, supply or install plant, substances or structures must, so far as is reasonably practicable, make sure that what they provide to workplaces doesn’t create health or safety risks.
Why? Because upstream businesses are in a strong position to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety within the design and manufacturing process.

Listed below are key sections of the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015.

s28 – No contracting out

A term of any agreement or contract that purports to exclude, limit, or modify the operation of this Act, or any duty owed under this Act, or to transfer to another person any duty owed under this Act— (a) has no effect to the extent that it does so; Read more about this section here

s29 – Insurance against fines unlawful

(1) To the extent that an insurance policy or a contract of insurance indemnifies or purports to indemnify a person for the person’s liability to pay a fine or infringement fee under this Act,— (a) the policy or contract is of no effect; Read more about this section here

s30 – Management of risks

1) A duty imposed on a person by or under this Act requires the person— (a) to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable; and (b) if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable. Read more about this section here

s31 – Duties not transferable

A duty imposed on a person by or under this Act may not be transferred to another person. Read more about this section here

s36 – Primary duty of care

(1) A PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of— (a) workers who work for the PCBU, while the workers are at work in the business or undertaking; and (b) workers whose activities in carrying out work are influenced or directed by the PCBU, while the workers are carrying out the work. (2) A PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of other persons is not put at risk from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking. Read more about this section here

s44 – Duty of officers

(1) If a PCBU has a duty or an obligation under this Act, an officer of the PCBU must exercise due diligence to ensure that the PCBU complies with that duty or obligation. Read more about this section h ere

s50 – Liability of officers

An officer of a PCBU may be convicted or found guilty of an offence against section 44 whether or not the PCBU has been convicted or found guilty of an offence under this Act relating to the duty or obligation. Read more about this section here

s57 – Requirement to keep records

(1) A PCBU must keep a record of each notifiable event for at least 5 years from the date on which notice of the event is given to the regulator under section 56. Read more about this sectio n here

s58 – Duty to engage with workers

(1) A PCBU must, so far as is reasonably practicable, engage with workers— (a) who carry out work for the business or undertaking; and (b) who are, or are likely to be, directly affected by a matter relating to work health or safety. (2) If the PCBU and the workers have agreed to procedures for engagement, the engagement must be in accordance with those procedures. Read more about this section here

s62 – Election of health and safety representatives

(3) A PCBU may, on the PCBU’s own initiative, initiate the election of 1 or more health and safety representatives to represent workers who carry out work for that business or undertaking. Read more about this section here

s66 – Health and safety committees

(8) A PCBU at a workplace may establish a health and safety committee for the workplace or part of the workplace on the PCBU’s own initiative. Read more about this section here

s83 – Right of worker to cease or refuse to carry out unsafe work

(1) A worker may cease, or refuse to carry out, work if the worker believes that carrying out the work would expose the worker, or any other person, to a serious risk to the worker’s or other person’s health or safety arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard. Read more about this section here

To download your own copy of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), click here

What are Regulations?

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) – Responsibilities