Work Health and Safety
New Work Health and Safety ("WHS") laws commenced in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory on 1 January 2012.
These new WHS laws are part of the national 'harmonisation' initiative to create uniform regulation of work health and safety in Australia. These laws replace the previous Occupational Health and Safety ("OHS") laws in each jurisdiction. There are a number of changes that have been introduced in the WHS laws from the previous OHS laws. For more information about the national 'harmonisation' initiative, please see the website of Safe Work Australia.
WHS obligations are structured to require employers to take pro-active steps to ensure safety - not just for their employees, but also for any person performing work for the business, including contractors, sub-contractors and volunteers.
Our WHS practice concentrates on assisting clients to develop preventive WHS management strategies to comply with their legal obligations including:
- compliance auditing (including in respect of the national 'harmonisation' initiative);
- procedure development;
- workplace injuries;
- drugs and alcohol;
- stress and mental disorders;
- rehabilitation;
- accident investigation and assisting with WorkCover investigations;
- coronial inquests;
- defending WorkCover prosecutions;
- training (including training your Board of Directors), including in respect of the new duty of 'due diligence' for officers; and
- legal risk management.
We also advise and appear in relation to WHS investigations and prosecutions in all jurisdictions other than NSW.
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