WHS policy builder

Laid out against the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW). This is a draft prepared from the details entered. It does not by itself show that your obligations are met: check it against your workplace, consult the people who will use it, and update it when things change.

1. Work health and safety policy

[Business name] is committed to the health and safety of everyone who works for us or is affected by our work. This policy applies to all workers, including employees, contractors, labour hire workers, apprentices and volunteers, and to visitors at our workplaces.

Legal basis: Primary duty of care: s 19 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW). Officers: s 27. Workers: s 28. Managing risks and the hierarchy of controls: ss 34–38 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW).

So far as is reasonably practicable, [Business name] will:

• Provide and maintain a safe work environment, safe plant and structures, and safe systems of work.
• Identify hazards, assess the risks and control them, eliminating risks first and otherwise minimising them using the hierarchy of controls.
• Give workers the information, training, instruction and supervision they need to work safely.
• Consult workers, and their health and safety representatives, on health and safety matters that affect them.
• Provide adequate welfare facilities, and safe use, handling and storage of plant and substances.
• Monitor the health of workers and the conditions at the workplace where needed.
• Report, record and investigate incidents and near misses, and act on what we learn.
• Make sure visitors and members of the public are not put at risk by our work.

Officers (directors and senior managers) keep up to date with health and safety, understand our hazards and risks, and make sure the resources and processes to manage them are in place and used.

Workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and for others affected by what they do, follow reasonable health and safety instructions, and co-operate with our policies and procedures.

2. Consultation on health and safety

How [Business name] consults workers before making decisions that affect their health and safety.

Legal basis: ss 47–49 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW).

• We consult when identifying hazards and assessing risks, deciding on controls, deciding whether welfare facilities are adequate, and before changes that may affect health and safety.
• We share the relevant information, give workers a reasonable opportunity to have their say, and take their views into account.
• We tell workers what was decided.
• Where workers have a health and safety representative, the representative is involved.
• Consultation happens through [team meetings, toolbox talks, a health and safety committee].

3. Reporting hazards and incidents

How hazards, near misses, injuries and incidents at [Business name] are reported, recorded and followed up.

Legal basis: ss 35–39 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW): notify the regulator immediately of a notifiable incident, keep a record for at least 5 years (s 38(7)), and preserve the site (s 39).

• Report every hazard, near miss, injury and incident to your supervisor or [WHS contact] as soon as you can. No one is penalised for reporting in good faith.
• Every report goes in the incident and hazard register.
• We investigate to find what caused it and fix the cause, not just the symptom.
• For a serious incident, [WHS contact] notifies the regulator straight away and makes sure the site is left undisturbed until an inspector says otherwise, except to help the injured or make the area safe.

4. Review

[WHS contact] reviews these policies by [review date], and sooner after a serious incident or a change to our work, workplace or the law. Workers are consulted on changes.

Draft prepared with a free tool. Tailor it before use. General information, not legal advice.