Workplace Health & Safety Requirements and Regulations

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The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation and the associated Codes of Practice which detail how the Regulation should be implemented have all been entirely re-written as part of the harmonisation of WH & S law across Australia.
Under Workplace Health and Safety Regulation (2011) which came into force on January 1st 2012 if you are the “person in control of a business or undertaking (PCBU)” you are responsible to find out if your workplace contains asbestos if it was built before 2004 (or 1990 in Queensland).

Summarising this you are required to:

1. Take steps to find out if there is any asbestos containing materials for a workplace built prior to 2004 or 1990. This usually means hiring “a competent person” who has the knowledge and experience to assist you.
2. Keep an Asbestos Containing Materials Register in your workplace.
3. Have Risk Assessments done on all asbestos containing materials found or assumed to be present in the Workplace.
4. Create and have in place an Asbestos Management Plan including for any assumed or presumed areas of asbestos containing material
5. Review and update this plan and register at least every 5 years if asbestos containing materials are found or earlier if renovation or demolition is to be carried out or if a risk assessment indicates otherwise. For example an unsealed asbestos cement roof may require an annual review and re-inspection and update in the asbestos register and asbestos management plan.
6. Display at an appropriate place a notice that there is an Asbestos Materials Register and have it available to access or view at the workplace.
7. Provide training for workers, contractors and others who come in contact with Asbestos containing materials.
8. For all licenced asbestos removal works, ensure clearance inspections which may include airborne dust monitoring are conducted only by licensed asbestos removal assessors who are independent to the removal process, before a work area is re-occupied.

Codes of Practice

The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation and the associated Codes of Practice which detail how the Regulation should be implemented have all been entirely re-written and new Codes of Practice created where necessary as part of the harmonisation of WH & S law across Australia.

Under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation (2011) which came into force on January 1st 2012 if you are the “person in control of a business or undertaking (PCBU)” you are responsible to find out if your workplace contains asbestos if it was built before 2004 (1990 in Queensland).

If the above applies then – you are required to follow all the steps as described by your state’s Workplace Health & Safety Regulations and Codes of Practice.

This change has occurred because asbestos was still able to be legally imported into Australia until December 2003. Most building products coming into or being made in Australia were by this time asbestos free however machinery constructed up to this time may have used asbestos components such as gaskets, seals, brake or clutch linings.