WHS duties

You must always aim to eliminate health and safety risks at work so far as is reasonably practicable. Given the nature of biological hazards, elimination may not be possible for many workplaces. If it is not reasonable for you to eliminate the risk, you must implement control measures to minimise the risk as much as you reasonably can.  

While the types of biological hazards vary widely, and the control measures that can be implemented to manage risks will depend on your particular workplace, exposure to some biological hazards can be effectively managed with baseline control measures such as:

• ensuring good air quality, including through ventilation and air cleaning  
• implementing routine cleaning and proper waste management processes  
• training workers on good hygiene practices, including cleaning hands
• encouraging vaccination for vaccine preventable diseases that may be present in your workplace
• training workers on potential biological hazards and control measures in place to manage risks, and  
• providing workers with suitable personal protective equipment (PPE).  

Some workplaces will have specific risks arising from biological hazards which may require additional control measures to be implemented, such as workplaces where higher risk activities are conducted (e.g. hospitals).

Working through the risk management process can help you assess the risks at your workplace and work out what control measures to implement.  

For more information, see Managing risks and Control measures pages. 

You must consult with workers and any Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) on health and safety matters that may affect them. This includes sharing information, giving them an opportunity to express their views and taking those views into account before making decisions on health and safety matters.

Workers can help you to identify tasks or parts of their job that may expose them to biological hazards and may have practical suggestions or potential solutions to manage those risks.

Make sure you also consult, coordinate and cooperate with other duty holders (if you share a duty for the same workers or workplace). For example, if you run a business (e.g. a hospital) and have labour hire workers (e.g. laundry contractor workers) as part of your workforce, both you and the business providing the workers (e.g. an onsite laundry contractor) will owe those workers a duty of care. Consulting, cooperating and coordinating with other duty holders can help you more easily and effectively control risks, and assist each of you to comply with your duty.

For more information see our consultation page.  

You must ensure the work environment does not put the health and safety of workers and others at risk.  

You can maintain a safe work environment by:

• providing adequate and accessible facilities for workers, including toilets, access to safe drinking water, and facilities for washing and eating
• cleaning the workplace regularly and thoroughly, and
• ensuring appropriate waste management practices, including waste disposal.  

You must provide workers with any information, training, instruction or supervision that is necessary to protect them from the risks arising from biological hazards in the workplace. You must ensure that the information, training, instruction or supervision provided to workers is suitable and adequate for your workers.  

You should ensure workers understand:

• the potential biological hazards in the workplace and the measures in place to control risks
• how to properly fit and use PPE
• vaccination recommendations (if any), and  
• the work policies and procedures that must be followed.  

For more information, see our Training and supporting your workers to stay safe at work page. 

While at work, workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and not do anything which could cause harm to others at work. Workers must comply (so far as they are reasonably able) with any reasonable health and safety instructions, and cooperate with reasonable policies or procedures.  

If personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided to workers, they must use and wear it in accordance with the information, instruction and training provided.  

Other people (e.g. visitors and customers) must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and not do anything to cause harm to other people at the workplace. They must also follow any reasonable instructions you give, so that you can comply with your WHS duties. 

Commonwealth and state and territory regulators oversee and enforce WHS laws in their jurisdictions. You can contact your WHS Regulator for information about the specific WHS duties in your jurisdiction.