Lone Working Legislations in Australia: A Guide

Different Working Alone Legislations in Australia

Safe Work Australia is the government agency responsible for developing, maintaining, and providing guidance for the Model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws and occupational safety regulations. They work to keep safety standards consistent across the country. Meanwhile, each Australian territory and state must adhere to its Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act or Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, depending on which applies.

Territories that Adopted the Model Work Health and Safety Act

One major legislation in Australia that provides guidance for working alone safely is the Model Work Health and Safety Act. This Act aims at ensuring safe and healthy workplaces. While each territory implements it in its own way, they’ve all embraced the key principles and core provisions of the model legislation.

Aside from that, they also have specific provisions about lone working. Certain provisions are enforced under Division 3.2.6 Remote or isolated work (Regulation 48) of the WHS 2011, emphasizing that employers have a strict duty to manage risks and maintain communication with lone workers to ensure their safety. Failure to comply can result in significant penalties.

The territories that primarily use it for setting lone worker safety policies are the following:

• Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
• Commonwealth Territory (Cwth)
• New South Wales (NSW)
• Northern Territory (NT)
• Queensland (Qld)
• South Australia (SA)
• Tasmania (Tas) 
• Western Australia (WA)

Each of these jurisdictions requires employers to manage risks specific to lone workers, maintain reliable communication systems, conduct risk assessments, and implement safety procedures to protect workers operating alone. This alignment across most states and territories ensures a consistent approach to protecting lone workers throughout Australia.

All territories adopting the Model Work Health and Safety Act must implement a comprehensive framework that:

• Manages risks associated with remote or isolated work: Employers must identify, assess, and control hazards unique to lone workers
• Provides effective communication systems: Employers are required to implement reliable methods for lone workers to maintain contact (e.g. regular check-ins and emergency communication protocols).
• Ensures safe systems of work: Businesses must establish procedures that address the particular challenges of working alone with the right  response plans and supervision arrangements for the nature of their jobs.
• Provides training and information: Lone workers must receive instruction and supervision tailored to their isolated work conditions before they begin work.
• Monitors health and workplace conditions: Employers must monitor lone workers’ wellbeing and their work environment even from afar.
• Promotes incident reporting and site preservation: Lone workers must be able to report incidents promptly, and employers must preserve sites for investigation to better understand what happened.

It is important to note that Western Australia adopted this act later than the rest, having only been operational from March 2022. It was modified to include additional provisions tailored to its high-risk industries, especially mining and petroleum. These local variations address specific hazards and regulatory needs unique to their industrial landscape.

Meanwhile, the other territories (namely Cwth, ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, and Tas) closely follow the Model WHS Act with minor local modifications to fit their administrative and legal frameworks but maintain the core principles and requirements intact.

Territories that Adopted the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) is the main law for workplace safety in Victoria. It was introduced before the national Model WHS Act and takes a different approach in how it’s structured, regulated, and enforced. While it shares the same goal of keeping workers safe, it has its own unique features compared to the harmonised laws used in other parts of Australia.

This Act requires the following:

• Employers must properly orient regular workers and lone workers on efficient practices to reduce work-related injury and illness by improving health and safety standards across all Victorian workplaces.
• Employees must take reasonable steps to ensure a safe, healthy work environment for their fellow workers, lone workers, and others around them by practising safe work procedures and managing facilities.
• Workers, both in teams and alone, should be involved or represented in creating safety plans through Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) and Committees.
• Workplaces should have detailed plans and requirements for managing hazards such as asbestos, high-risk work, and major hazard facilities or equipment.

All in all, while Victoria’s Act shares similar objectives—like securing workplace health and safety, eliminating risks at the source, and promoting consultation—it differs in structure, specific provisions, and enforcement mechanisms from the other territories.

Importance

Organisations are responsible for ensuring the safety of their lone workers. Lone working legislation plays an important role by offering a clear framework for developing effective lone working policies. These legislations require employers to conduct specific risk assessments for lone working activities to identify and manage hazards, ensure effective communication systems are in place for emergencies, and establish procedures for communication with lone workers. These laws also help develop workplace policies tailored to the unique challenges of lone work.

By enforcing these, the risks associated with lone working are reduced and a safer work environment for lone workers are enhanced across various industries and locations in Australia.

Examples of Lone Workers in Australia

Examples of Lone Workers in Australia

In Australia, lone workers are found across a variety of industries, often in tough, hot conditions. When improving policies to protect these workers, it’s important for organisations to understand the specific challenges of Australian work environments and clearly define who qualifies as a lone worker.

Some common examples of lone workers in Australia include the following:

• Workers operating solo from remote bases, like miners or farmers in dry areas.
• Workers on large, spread-out sites, such as construction crews in hot climates.
• Workers travelling alone during shifts, like delivery drivers in rural zones.
• Employees working off-hours, such as night security or maintenance staff.
• Workers alone for long periods, like telecommunication technicians at isolated sites.

Because Australia’s hotter climate increases risks of heat stress and dehydration, it’s important that lone worker policies take these environmental hazards into account. This includes providing heat safety training, ensuring access to hydration, scheduling work to avoid peak heat, and using technology such as lone worker devices with check-in and emergency alert features to monitor wellbeing during extreme temperatures.

Lone Worker Safety Responsibilities

Both employees and employers share crucial responsibilities to ensure the safety of lone workers. Employees must follow established safety procedures, use provided safety equipment correctly, maintain regular communication as required, promptly report hazards or incidents, and actively participate in training to uphold their own safety and support effective lone working protocols.

Employers, on the other hand, are responsible for conducting thorough risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential hazards specific to lone work. They must provide reliable communication tools, establish clear procedures for continuous contact, supply appropriate safety gear, deliver comprehensive training, and ensure adequate supervision when necessary.

Tools like GPS tracking, automated check-in systems, emergency alert devices, and mobile safety apps play a vital role in helping both employers and employees comply with these responsibilities. They help enhance communication, monitor worker wellbeing in real time, and streamline incident reporting. By integrating these technological tools into lone worker safety programs, organizations can more effectively fulfil their duty of care, improve compliance with regulations, and create safer working conditions for lone workers.