Every work health and safety course in Australia comes back to the same Act. This quiz checks the core of it, from the duties of the PCBU to the powers and training of health and safety representatives, and cites the section behind each answer.
The duties in the WHS Act
The model Work Health and Safety Act is in force in every state and territory except Victoria, which has its own OHS Act. The person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has the primary duty: to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and of anyone else affected by the work. «Reasonably practicable» weighs the likelihood of the risk, the harm it could do, what is known about controls and whether they are available; cost counts only if it is grossly disproportionate to the risk.
Officers, such as directors, must exercise due diligence to make sure the PCBU complies. Workers must take reasonable care for themselves and others and follow reasonable instructions. Deaths, serious injuries or illnesses and dangerous incidents are notifiable: the regulator must be told immediately, the site left undisturbed, and a record kept for at least five years.
Consultation and health and safety representatives
A PCBU must consult workers when identifying hazards, deciding on controls, proposing changes and in the other cases the Act lists. Workers can ask for work groups and elect a health and safety representative (HSR). An HSR is entitled to an initial five-day training course and one day of refresher training at least every 12 months; the PCBU pays the fees and reasonable costs and pays the HSR for the time. Once trained, an HSR can issue a provisional improvement notice and, where there is a serious risk from an immediate or imminent hazard, direct that unsafe work stop.
A health and safety committee must be set up when an HSR or five or more workers ask for one. Any worker may also stop or refuse work they reasonably believe would expose them to a serious risk, telling the PCBU as soon as practicable.
Using the quiz
The quiz works as a warm-up on the first morning of HSR training, as a refresher between courses, or at a consultation meeting to make sure everyone knows their rights and duties. It is a revision aid: HSR courses must still be done with a provider approved in your state or territory.