Consultation, Representation and Participation

The WHS Act places strong duties on PCBUs to consult with workers and to enable worker representation and participation in health and safety. These are set out in the Act itself (with detail in the WHS Regulations and supported by the Work Health and Safety Consultation, Cooperation and Coordination Code of Practice).

Consultation is not a box-ticking exercise. Research consistently shows that workplaces where workers are genuinely involved in identifying and managing risks have fewer injuries and better safety cultures.

This page is not legal advice. For specific compliance questions, consult a qualified health and safety advisor or lawyer.

The core obligation

Under the WHS Act, a PCBU must consult, so far as is reasonably practicable, with workers who carry out work for the business and who are (or are likely to be) directly affected by a health and safety matter. Consultation is required when:

Identifying hazards and assessing risks
Making decisions about ways to eliminate or minimise risks
Making decisions about the adequacy of facilities for workers
Proposing changes that may affect health and safety
Making decisions about procedures for consultation, resolving issues, monitoring health and conditions, and providing information and training

Consultation means sharing information, giving workers a reasonable opportunity to express their views and contribute, and taking those views into account.

Health and safety representatives (HSRs)

Workers may ask to be represented by a health and safety representative (HSR). If workers request it, the PCBU must facilitate the election of HSRs for the relevant work group. HSRs have specific powers under the WHS Act, including:

Representing the workers in their work group on health and safety matters
Inspecting the workplace
Investigating complaints from work group members
Being present at interviews about health and safety (with worker consent)
Issuing a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) — a formal direction to remedy a health and safety contravention
Directing workers to cease unsafe work in circumstances of serious and immediate risk

HSR training: An elected HSR is entitled to attend an approved HSR training course, at the PCBU’s cost, to exercise some of these powers. This is a certification you should track in SteadyOn.

SteadyOn support: Add a Training Course called “HSR Training” and enrol elected HSRs in it. The enrollment’s BRAG flags certifications that need refreshing.

Work groups

HSRs represent work groups — groupings of workers negotiated between the PCBU and workers so that workers who share similar work, hazards, or location are represented effectively. The Act sets out how work groups are determined, varied, and how many HSRs and deputy HSRs each may have.

SteadyOn support: SteadyOn’s user roles (Owner, Admin, Member) and team structure do not directly map to work groups, but you can use the reporting and dashboard tools to generate data relevant to a particular work group or site.

Health and safety committees

A PCBU must establish a health and safety committee within two months if an HSR or five or more workers request one. A committee brings workers and management together to develop and review health and safety policies and procedures, and to consult on health and safety matters.

SteadyOn support: While SteadyOn does not manage committee meetings, it provides the data the committee needs: current hazard register status, overdue actions, incident trends, upcoming inspections, and training gaps. Export reports from SteadyOn to bring to committee meetings as your compliance dashboard.

Day-to-day participation practices

Even where no HSR is elected and no committee is formed, a PCBU must still consult with workers. In practice this is supported by everyday participation practices — the ways workers raise health and safety concerns and contribute to safety decisions.

Examples include:

Toolbox talks and safety briefings
Hazard reporting systems
Pre-task hazard assessments (take-5 / SWMS / JSA)
Anonymous hazard reporting channels

SteadyOn support: The most direct form of worker participation in SteadyOn is hazard and incident reporting. Every user — including Members (the lowest role) — can report a hazard or incident. The public incident reporting link allows workers, contractors, and visitors to report without needing a SteadyOn account at all. This makes it easy for every person at your workplace to participate in identifying risks.

Consult, cooperate and coordinate between duty holders

Many workplaces involve more than one duty holder — for example, a construction site where a principal contractor and several subcontractors all share the same work environment, or a host business and a labour-hire provider sharing the same workers. Where more than one PCBU has a duty in relation to the same matter, each must consult, cooperate, and coordinate activities with the others, so far as is reasonably practicable.

SteadyOn support: The public incident reporting link is particularly useful where multiple duty holders share a workplace — contractors and subcontractors can report hazards and incidents without needing SteadyOn accounts.

Summary: consultation and participation in SteadyOn

Consultation / participation requirement	SteadyOn feature
Workers can report hazards	Hazards — every member can create
Workers can report incidents	Incidents — every member can create
Contractors/visitors can report	The public reporting link
HSR certification tracked	Training Courses + Enrollments
Committee safety data available	Dashboard, Reports, CSV export
Toolbox talk records	Documents (store SWMS and records)