The Duty Holder https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/ A national work health and safety masthead for the people who hold the duty: safety managers, WHS advisers and small business owners. It reports the model WHS laws and their movement, the nine regulators' codes, guidance and published enforcement outcomes, and the national fatality and claims data, plainly and apolitically, with every factual claim linked to its primary source. Free to read; funded by clearly labelled advertising. en A shotfirer on foot was struck by a reversing mobile processing unit. The regulator's first account, and the five things it says mine operators must do https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/mobile-processing-unit-fatality-release/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/mobile-processing-unit-fatality-release/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:54:00 GMT The NSW Resources Regulator's investigation information release IIR26-05, published 28 August 2026, describes a contract shotfirer fatally struck by a reversing mobile processing unit during explosives loading at an open-cut coal mine near Singleton on 3 August 2026. The investigation is ongoing. The release's safety information, quoted in full, and the regulator's earlier vehicle interaction guidance it points to. The regulator's new exposure count: two in three workers probably exposed, and one in 20 at or around the silica exposure standard https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/worker-exposure-survey-2026/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/worker-exposure-survey-2026/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Safe Work Australia's 2026 Australian Worker Exposure Survey, published 22 September 2026, estimates that 68.0 per cent of workers had probable exposure to at least one assessed agent and 28.9 per cent at a high level. Silica: 13.6 per cent of all workers (about 2.04 million by the report's count), 5.0 per cent at a high level, 71.8 per cent of construction workers and 35.7 per cent of apprentices and trainees. Solar UV: 32.4 per cent of all workers. The survey estimates exposure from the tasks workers describe; it does not measure it. What PCBU, “reasonably practicable” and the other WHS terms mean, in the Act's own words https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/whs-terms/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/whs-terms/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:55:00 GMT A reference page quoting the statutory definitions of ten work health and safety terms from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth), Compilation No. 16, with section numbers, what each definition leaves out, and the term the Act never uses. The register that tells you whether a licence is real, and the four things it will not tell you https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/checking-a-safework-licence/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/checking-a-safework-licence/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 03:45:07 GMT A reader-reference page on the SafeWork NSW public licence register: the fields it carries in the regulator's own words, the cut-off date on published penalty notices, the suppression right a holder can exercise, the three checks SafeWork tells employers to make, and the four questions the register cannot answer. The welding fume limit is on the whole fume, and four metal limits in the same list sit above it https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/welding-fume-limit-whole-fume/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/welding-fume-limit-whole-fume/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:17:14 GMT Australia's workplace exposure limit for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) is 1 mg/m3 on the inhalable fraction. The evaluation report that recommended it defines the term as the total fume produced as a result of welding processes, and explains that Australia deliberately did not follow countries that dropped a total limit in favour of measuring individual constituents, because the harmful constituents of welding fume are not known in their entirety. Four metal fume limits in the same published list sit above 1 mg/m3: magnesium oxide fume at 10, iron oxide fume at 5, and zinc oxide and zinc chloride at 2. Thirty-four submissions on welding rules are now public, and the two safety regulators that made one both said no https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/welding-submissions-regulators-split/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/welding-submissions-regulators-split/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT Safe Work Australia published the 34 submissions to its Regulation of Welding Processes consultation, which closed on 12 July 2026. Nineteen respondents chose new welding-specific regulations in the model WHS Regulations and 15 chose updating the model Code of Practice and guidance instead. Among the 15 named organisations the split reverses, 8 to 7 in favour of the code. Both SafeWork NSW and WorkSafe WA chose the code, each supports exactly one of the six proposed regulations, and each supports a different one while dismissing the other's choice. A disconnected alarm, no spotter, and two companies fined $630,000 for the same death https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/boom-lift-death-two-duties/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/boom-lift-death-two-duties/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 04:27:00 GMT Ridge Commercial Pty Ltd and Licojo Pty Ltd were convicted and fined a combined $630,000 in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court after a 25-year-old worker died in a boom lift at a North Blackburn construction site in August 2023. WorkSafe Victoria found no spotter was used and the operator protection alarm was disconnected. The two companies were prosecuted on different charges reflecting different duties. Victoria has prosecuted 42 solar companies over falls, mostly before anyone fell https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/victoria-solar-falls-enforcement/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/victoria-solar-falls-enforcement/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 03:59:00 GMT WorkSafe Victoria announced a solar-sector falls crackdown on 26 August 2026, disclosing 42 prosecutions of solar companies since 2021 for more than $1.4 million in court-imposed penalties, with the vast majority for observed working-at-height breaches where no incident had occurred. It is sharing data with Solar Victoria, which can suspend operators from the Solar Homes Program. What a PCBU is, and the four ways you can be exempt from being one https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/what-a-pcbu-is/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/what-a-pcbu-is/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 03:29:00 GMT PCBU means person conducting a business or undertaking, the duty holder in Australian work health and safety law. Section 5 of the enacted Act defines it as conducting a business or undertaking alone or with others and whether or not for profit or gain, and then carves out workers and officers acting only in that capacity, elected local government members in that capacity, circumstances specified by regulation, and volunteer associations that employ nobody. Injured workers rate their health 10 points worse than a decade ago. Everyone else in work is unchanged. https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/injured-workers-health-against-the-control/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/injured-workers-health-against-the-control/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 02:57:00 GMT The Year 6 scorecard on the National Return to Work Strategy records self-rated good to excellent health among injured workers falling from 74.0 to 64.0 per cent. Its own supplementary indicators put the same broad measure for employed Australians at 91 per cent in 2022, the same as 2017-18, which rules out a general population decline as the explanation. Workers who claimed compensation are three times as likely to have a long absence. Read that carefully. https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/compensation-and-long-absences/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/compensation-and-long-absences/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:59:00 GMT A supplementary indicator in Safe Work Australia's Year 6 scorecard, drawn from the ABS Work-Related Injury Survey, shows 45 per cent of injured workers who received workers compensation had more than 10 days off or had not returned in 2021-22, against 15 per cent of those who did not receive compensation. The gap has widened by nine percentage points since 2013-14. The comparison is associational and does not show that claiming causes longer absences. The survey redesign gained employers and lost the question about harm https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/return-to-work-survey-redesign-what-it-cost/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/return-to-work-survey-redesign-what-it-cost/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 23:28:00 GMT The 2025 National Return to Work Survey redesign added an employer cohort for the first time, producing the Year 6 scorecard's most striking finding. The same redesign discontinued the Work Role Functioning indicator, removed the question asking whether returning to work hindered recovery, and attached comparability cautions to four further measures. Work kills far fewer Australians than in 2003. It disables about as many. https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/work-related-burden-fatal-vs-disabling/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/work-related-burden-fatal-vs-disabling/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 22:58:00 GMT A supplementary indicator in Safe Work Australia's Year 6 scorecard combines AIHW burden-of-disease estimates with ABS employment data to give rates per 1,000 workers. Years of life lost from occupational exposures fell from 3.6 in 2003 to 2.1 in 2024. Years lived with disability went 4.4 to 4.2. By our arithmetic on those figures, 88 per cent of the fall in total burden came from the fatal side. 94 per cent of employers say they supported their injured worker. Half that many workers agree https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/return-to-work-scorecard-year-6/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/return-to-work-scorecard-year-6/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:07:00 GMT Safe Work Australia's Year 6 scorecard on the National Return to Work Strategy 2020-2030, published 28 April 2026, included employer survey results for the first time. On support after injury employers report 94.1 per cent and workers 49.8 per cent. The report's summary says the evidence indicates limited improvement or deterioration across most national indicators. Six draft standards close for public comment on Monday 31 August, and four of them touch safety https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/standards-open-for-comment/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/standards-open-for-comment/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:01:26 GMT Standards Australia has 15 drafts open for public comment. Six close on 31 August 2026, four of them bearing on workplace safety. WA work safety prosecutions take a median 2.6 years, and a death does not make them faster https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/wa-whs-prosecution-lag-series/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/wa-whs-prosecution-lag-series/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT All 26 WorkSafe WA prosecution summaries published for 2024, 2025 and 2026, each timed from offence date to sentencing date. Median 2.62 years, range 1.97 to 3.78, and no measurable difference between cases that caused a death and cases that did not. WA's 2026 workplace safety convictions total $2.6 million, and the fatal one turned on a $300 part https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/wa-workplace-safety-convictions-2026/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/wa-workplace-safety-convictions-2026/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT WorkSafe WA's four published 2026 prosecution summaries under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020, read in full: $1,750,000 after a rigger was killed by a falling structural steel column, $550,000 over an unsecured pump boom, $200,000 after a contractor's mechanic was entangled in an unguarded mobile stacker conveyor at a gold mine near Kalgoorlie, and $135,000 after plywood fixed with nails instead of bolts struck a worker employed by another company. Victoria has two safety regulators for an electric shock, and only one of them can be browsed https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/victoria-two-electrical-safety-regulators/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/victoria-two-electrical-safety-regulators/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Energy Safe Victoria and WorkSafe Victoria both issue safety alerts touching electricity, under two different Acts. The Electricity Safety Act 1998 gives ESV the equipment, installations and electrical work; the OHS Act 2004 gives WorkSafe the workplace. Which to watch for what, and why one of the two alert indexes cannot be read. Can you take annual leave while on workers compensation? The federal default is no https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/leave-while-on-workers-compensation/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/leave-while-on-workers-compensation/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:49:00 GMT Section 130 of the Fair Work Act 2009 provides that an employee is not entitled to take or accrue leave while receiving workers compensation. Queensland, Western Australia, the ACT and Tasmania legislate past it; the Northern Territory scheme is silent so the federal default applies; and the Comcare, Seacare and DRCA schemes prohibit paid leave other than maternity leave during compensation leave. From Safe Work Australia's 2025 comparison, Table 5.10. We said no NSW conviction took less than three years. In August, two of four did https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/whs-prosecution-lag-august/ https://australianworkplacesafety.com.au/whs-prosecution-lag-august/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:46:00 GMT In July this masthead measured six SafeWork NSW conviction announcements from incident date to announcement date and found none under three years, with a median of 1,231 days. The same measurement applied to the four convictions announced in August 2026 gives a median of 1,078.5 days, a fastest of 1,031, and two matters under three years. The tight Industrial Court cluster flagged in July did not hold, its spread widening from 61 days to 258, but across all ten cases the Industrial and District Court ranges still do not overlap.