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Title_of_text

Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (No. 18 of 2011).

Main Region

First Region

Australia
Queensland
Occupational safety and health
2011
State or Province
Law, Act

Second Region

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (PDF, 1.42 MB) (WHS Act) provides a framework to protect the health, safety and welfare of all workers at work. It also protects the health and safety of all other people who might be affected by the work.

All workers are protected by the WHS Act. This includes employees, contractors, subcontractors, outworkers, apprentices and trainees, work experience students, volunteers and employers who perform work. The WHS Act also provides protection for the general public so that their health and safety is not placed at risk by work activities.

The WHS Act places the primary health and safety duty on a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), who must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers at the workplace. Duties are also placed on officers of a PCBU, workers and other persons at a workplace.

All duties under the WHS Act are qualified by the term 'reasonably practicable'.

The WHS Act also sets out the requirements for the following:

incident notification
consultation with workers
issue resolution
inspector powers and functions
offences and penalties.

Entry dates region

    Date of entry into force
    2012-01-01
    --

Implementing Text region

Electronic region