Work Health and Safety (Amenities for Construction Work) Amendment Regulation 2024
From 1 January 2025, principal contractors will be required to ensure designated female toilets and improved facilities and amenities for certain construction projects.
The Work Health and Safety (Amenities for Construction Work) Amendment Regulation 2024 (Amenities Regulation) amends the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 to improve facilities and amenities on certain construction projects, particularly to improve conditions for women working in construction.
The Amenities Regulation gives effect to part of Recommendation 30 of the 2022 Review of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 by setting out requirements for accessible and hygienic facilities and amenities and to address the needs of women construction workers.
The Amenities Regulation supports the Queensland Government’s broader commitment to increase participation rates of women in frontline roles on Queensland Government construction projects to 11 percent, in line with the National Association of Women in Construction’s target.
Duty to ensure toilets are reasonably available
From 1 January 2025, the existing duty for principal contractors to provide amenities for construction projects will change.
Principal contractors must ensure that toilets are reasonably available to each construction person on construction projects where construction work costs over $250,000. This includes ensuring access to designated female toilets and amenities, such as sanitary bins.
A maximum penalty of $2,000 applies for a failure to comply with this duty.
Designated female toilets
A designated female toilet is a type of toilet that can only be used by female construction persons and must be safe, secure and accessible and fitted with specific amenities, such as sanitary bins.
A female construction person is both a construction worker of the site, as well as a relevant person visiting the site, such as an architect or engineer, if they are female or identify as female.
Principal contractors must ensure that designated female toilets are:
- located in close proximity to other toilets, so far as reasonably practicable
- accessible without requiring female construction persons to enter a block or room that has cubicles or urinals used by male construction persons
- clearly signed and identifiable as a designated female toilet, and
- restricted for use only by female construction persons e.g. locked with an access code given only to female construction persons during induction.
Ensuring toilets are ‘reasonably available’
A principal contractor must have regard to all relevant circumstances when ensuring toilets are reasonably available to workers.
Examples of relevant factors include, but are not limited to:
- the area of the construction site e.g. ensuring toilets are located within 100 metres of where construction work is being performed, or for very large sites like a road or solar farms, that toilets are within a 2-kilometre car trip if the worker has immediate access to a vehicle
- whether it is a multilevel development, which requires facilities on certain levels, and
- the number of construction workers for the construction project.
Principal contractors are not required to provide additional amenities or designated female toilets for construction projects where construction work costs less than $250,000.
However, a person conducting a business or undertaking must still take steps to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the provision of adequate facilities for workers, including toilets, drinking water, washing and eating facilities under the WHS Regulation and the requirements of the Managing the work environment and facilities code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.57 MB) to ensure they are meeting their WHS obligations.
Construction work costing more than $250,000 and less than $7.5 million is a small construction project for the purpose of Schedule 5A of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011.
For these projects, a minimum of 1 designated female toilet is required if there are more than 15 construction persons. This is in addition to any other toilets the principal contractor must make reasonably available for the project.
For example, the minimum number of toilets on a small construction project:
- five construction persons: one toilet and zero female designated toilets
- 20 construction persons: one toilet and one designated female toilet
Factors such as the nature of the construction project, location, and size and composition of the workforce may require a principal contractor to provide additional toilets and designated female toilets to meet their obligations, including their duty to ensure that toilets are reasonably available to each construction person.
Construction work costing more than $7.5 million is a large construction project for the purpose of Schedule 5A of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011.
For these projects, a minimum of one designated female toilet is required for each 100, or part of 100 construction persons. This is in addition to any other toilets the principal contractor must make reasonably available for the project.
For example, the minimum number of toilets on a large construction project:
- 10 construction persons: at least one toilet and one designated female toilet
- 120 construction persons: at least eight toilets and an additional two designated female toilets
Factors such as the nature of the construction project, location, and size and composition of the workforce may require a principal contractor to provide additional toilets and designated female toilets to meet their obligations, including their duty to ensure that toilets are reasonably available to each construction person.
Multilevel construction projects are buildings with at least four levels of a structure not counting ground level.
For multilevel projects, there must be one toilet and one designated female toilet on at least:
- the ground floor
- the fourth level below ground
- the fourth level above ground, and
- each third level after the fourth level.
For example, for an office tower designed to have six basement car park levels and 14 levels of office space, there must be at least 1 toilet and 1 designated female toilet on:
- Level four below ground
- Ground Level, and
- Levels four, seven, 10 and 13.
Principal contractors must still consider accessibility when planning the locations of these toilets and may find it necessary to have additional toilets and designated female toilets on additional levels to ensure toilets are reasonably available for all construction persons.