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Law & Rights

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 achievee 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.

Sometimes codes relatee directly to the Act (for example the Code of Practice for Workplaces, and the one for First Aid). Other Codes related to specific regulations. 

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. These codes will be progressively reviewed and replaced, where appropriate, with Compliance Codes.

Existing Codes of Practice will continue to be available from WorkSafe as a source of practical guidance for those who have OHS duties. WorkSafe will progressively review all Codes of Practice and replace them with other types of guidance material and, in appropriate cases, with Compliance Codes that will provide greater certainty about what constitutes compliance with the OHS laws.

No Compliance Codes have yet been finalised, though there has been work done, following the consolidation of the regulations.  When the drafts are completed, these will be released for public comment (August 2007).  The Consolidated Regulations have now been finalised and declared (read more).

All the codes of practice are still available free and can be ordered from WorkSafe Victoria (phone number of the publications unit is 03 9641 1333). They can be downloaded from their website by going to this page.
 
Click on the Code you want to access document. (note: these links are being redirected)