Codes of Practice
Under the 1985 OHS Act, Codes of Practice were declared to provide practical guidance to employers, self-employed people, employees, occupiers, designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers or any other person who has a duty under the OHS Act and regulations. Codes of practice:
- provided practical guidance;
- should have been followed by the employer unless there was a better solution which achieve the same result, or a better solution;
- were able to be used in support of the Act's preventive enforcement provision; and
- could be used to support prosecution.
Status under the 2004 OHS Act:
The status of WorkSafe Codes of Practice changed when the new OHS Act came into operation on 1 July 2005. The new Act allows for the making of Compliance Codes which, according to WorkSafe, will provide greater certainty about what constitutes compliance under OHS laws.
Advice from WorkSafe is that existing codes of practice will continue to be a source of practical guidance until such time as they are replaced with Compliance Codes.
Eight Compliance Codes have yet been finalised (September 2008), and work is continuing with the rest.
- Building and Construction Workplaces (No. 13, 1990)
- Dangerous Goods Storage and Handling (No.27, 2000)
- Demolition (No. 14, 1991)
- Demolition (Amendment No.1) (No. 21, 1998)
- Electrical Installations on Construction Sites (Industry Standard, 2002)
- Hazardous Substances (No. 24, 2000)
- Lead (No.26, 2000)
- Manual Handling (No.25, 2000)
- Noise (No. 17, 1992)
- Plant (No.19, 1995)
- Plant (Amendment No. 1) (No. 23, 1998)
- Prevention of Falls in Housing Construction (No.29, 2004)
- Safety Precautions in Trenching Operations (No. 8, 1988)
- Precast & Tilt-up Concrete For Buildings (Industry Standard 2001)
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Construction Workplaces (No 13, 1990)