Occupational Health & Safety

The Act

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) is the cornerstone of legislative and administrative measures to improve occupational health and safety in Victoria.

The Act sets out the key principles, duties and rights in relation to occupational health and safety. The general nature of the duties imposed by the Act means that they cover a very wide variety of circumstances, do not readily date and provide considerable flexibility for a duty holder to determine what needs to be done to comply.

The Regulations

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 are made under the Act.  They specify the ways duties imposed by the Act must be performed, or prescribe procedural or administrative matters to support the Act, such as requiring licenses for specific activities, keeping records, or notifying certain matters.

Guidance

Effective OHS regulation requires that WorkSafe provides clear, accessible advice and guidance about what constitutes compliance with the Act and Regulations. This can be achieved through Compliance Codes, WorkSafe Positions and non-statutory guidance (“the OHS compliance framework”).  For a detailed explanation of the OHS compliance framework, see the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Compliance Framework Handbook. 

Policy

Not every term in the legislation is defined or explained in detail.  Also, sometimes new circumstances arise (like increases in non-standard forms of employment, such as casual, labour hire and contract work, or completely new industries with new technologies which produce new hazards and risks) which could potentially impact on the reach of the law, or its effective administration by WorkSafe. Therefore, from time to time WorkSafe must make decisions about how it will interpret something that is referred to in legislation, or act on a particular issue, to ensure clarity. In these circumstances, WorkSafe will develop a policy. A policy is a statement of what WorkSafe understands something to mean, or what WorkSafe will do in certain circumstances.

The National Context

Victoria works with other Australian OHS jurisdictions to achieve nationally harmonised OHS legislative approaches and compliance frameworks.  This is through the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012, agreed by the Workplace Relations Ministers Council (WRMC) in 2002.  This strategy, coordinated by the Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (OASCC), establishes the overall framework within which areas requiring national action are identified.

The Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) is a group comprising the General Managers (or their representatives) of the peak bodies responsible for the regulation and administration of occupational health and safety in Australia and New Zealand.

The Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) mount national compliance campaigns targeted at specific industries across all jurisdictions. These campaign initiatives support the National OHS Strategy 2002 – 2012, and facilitate the development of consistent approaches to nationally recognised priorities."