Starting a business

Think about how you and your managers will demonstrate that work safety is important. Ways you might do this include:

• writing a workplace health and safety policy and making it available to your workers, clients and supply chain partners.
• developing ways of measuring and tracking the safety of your business.
• leading by example and personally following the safety rules that you set for your workers or that your supply chain partners set.
• making sure your workers know what you are responsible for, and what their workplace safety responsibilities are.

The Work Health and Safety Act requires business owners to consult with their workers about health and safety. This means you need to share information about health and safety, and give your workers a reasonable opportunity to express their views when they’re affected by a matter relating to health and safety.

Specifically, you need to consult when you’re:

• identifying hazards and assessing risks arising from work
• proposing changes that may affect the health and safety of workers
• carrying out activities prescribed by the WHS Regulation.

You also need to consult when making decisions about:

• ways to eliminate or minimise risks
• the adequacy of facilities for workers’ welfare
• procedures for consulting workers
• resolving health and safety issues
• monitoring the health and safety of workers or workplace conditions
• how to provide health and safety information and training to workers.

Workers are entitled to:

• elect a health and safety representative (HSR)
• request the formation of a health and safety committee
• cease unsafe work
• have health and safety issues resolved in accordance with an agreed issue resolution procedure
• not be discriminated against for raising health and safety issues.

There are different ways you can consult with workers. You may talk regularly to them and your supply chain partners about workplace safety. You might hold regular staff meetings and make safety a top agenda item. Or you might set up a safety committee. If you work with other businesses regularly, talk to them about the safety issues that you have shared responsibility for, such as driving your vehicles on to a client’s worksite.

The Work Health and Safety Act requires persons who conduct a business or undertaking (PCBUs) to manage all work health and safety risks in order to protect the health and safety of workers. Following this four-step risk management process will help you meet your health and safety obligations.

Read more about managing risks in the workplace.

Step 1. Identify hazards

A hazard is anything that’s likely to result in injury or illness. Some hazards are part of the work process, like machinery, stairs or toxic chemicals. Others result from failures, like broken equipment or human error.

Common work hazards include:

• manual tasks involving heavy loads or repetitive movements
• machinery or equipment with moving parts
• bullying, violence and work-related stress
• electricity
• noise
• hazardous chemicals like acids or dusts
• slips, trips and fall hazards.

You can identify hazards in your place of work by:

• inspecting your business
• talking to your workers
• reviewing available information.

Read more about hazards in the work place.

Step 2. Assess the risk

Once you’ve identified a hazard, you need to assess the risk it poses and decide how to control it. This will depend on:

• the severity of harm it could cause (from discomfort to serious injury to death)
• how likely that harm is to occur (from certain to unlikely to rare)
• what controls are already in place to reduce the risk of harm
• how urgently additional actions need to be taken.

For more information about hazards in your particular industry, see our Hazards A - Z list.

Step 3. Control the risks

When you’ve assessed that a risk has to be controlled, you need to put in place a measure that either removes the hazard or reduces it as effectively as possible. There are three possible levels of control.

Level 1 - eliminate the hazard, removing the risk completely.
Level 2 - eliminate as many of the risks associated with the hazard as possible. This includes substituting and isolating the hazard and using engineering controls.
Level 3 - rely on human behaviour and supervision to control the risk. Note that this is the least effective way to reduce risk.

Choose controls from the highest level you can, taking account of the unique circumstances in your business. See How to manage work health and safety risks Code of Practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB) for practical advice on developing effective controls.

Step 4. Review the controls

It’s important that you regularly review your control measures and look for new hazards. In particular, work health and safety legislation requires you to review controls in the following situations:

• when you become aware a control measure is not effectively controlling a risk
• before a change that might give rise to a new risk
• when you identify a new hazard or risk
• when consultation with workers indicates a review is needed
• after a health and safety representative requests a review.

The How to manage work health and safety risks Code of Practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB) includes a useful list of questions to ask when you’re reviewing your control measures.

Make sure your workers (including labour hire workers, group training workers, and volunteers) know the safety procedures at your workplace and have the right skills to perform their tasks. Some tasks require workers to hold a licence, and it will be your responsibility to check that they do. You should regularly check that workers are following safety procedures and have a process for addressing instances where procedures aren’t followed.

Under the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 Queensland employers are required to insure their workers against workplace accidents with WorkCover Queensland (with the exception of licensed self-insured employers). This is regardless of any other insurance policies you or the worker may hold.

Read more about accident insurance.

Who’s covered

Workers’ compensation insurance covers any worker you employ. In simple terms, a worker is someone who works under a contract of service. This can include sub-contractors, if you engage them for work. It can also include a salesperson paid by commission, as well as someone engaged by a labour hire agency or group training organisation. Find out more about who should be covered in the insurance policy.

What’s covered

Workers’ compensation insurance compensates employees who’ve been injured due to their employment, which can include injuries that happen while travelling to, from or for work.
Compensation can be for lost wages and for medical and rehabilitation costs that are considered reasonable and medically necessary. The kinds of injuries covered include:

• physical injuries, for example, back strain, lacerations, fractures, burns
• psychological/psychiatric injuries, such as stress, anxiety disorders
• 'over a period of time' injuries, for example, industrial deafness
• illnesses that develop a long time after exposure, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma
• aggravation of a pre-existing condition
• death from an injury or disease.

Find out more about the types of injury or illness that are covered.

How to apply

You can apply online for a WorkCover Queensland policy at any time. It takes between 5 and 15 minutes.

Have more questions?

If you have specific questions about your business situation, you can call WorkCover Queensland on 1300 362 128 or the Workers’ Compensation Helpline on 1300 365 855.

If you have a worker who's experienced a work-related injury or illness, then you must keep a record of the incident and report the injury or illness to WorkCover. You may also need to notify Workplace Health and safety Queensland.

Learn more about what to do if an injury or illness occurs.

Most importantly, you need to support your worker in returning to work. By understanding their injury and being prepared to be flexible, you can strike a balance between doing what's right for your worker and what's good for your business.

View the getting back to work guide.