Law & Rights
The OHS Act
The main Act covering OHS in Victoria is the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. The Act came into effect on July 1, 2005. Click on the items below for a summary of the main sections of OHS Act of relevance to workers and OHS reps.
The 2004 Act can be downloaded (in both pdf and Word format) on the Victorian government legislation repository website. (Copies of the OHS Act, other Acts and Regulations can purchased from Information Victoria (1300 366 356 505 Little Collins St, Melbourne).
More information
WorkSafe Victoria has produced a series of publications on the OHS Act. These include Information Sheets, Guides, and more. All of these can be downloaded a dedicated page on their website. Three useful publications are:
- Information for employees on health and safety - for employees, independent contractors and their employees
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Information for health and safety representatives - for reps and deputies, explains their rights and powers, what to expect from the employer and where to go for help.
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Employee representation - for OHS reps, deputies, and workers wanting to know how to ensure they are represented. Also for employers who need to ensure they understand employees' rights to representation, and the powers and functions of reps.
FAQs
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Volunteers in the workplace
- are they covered by OHS Legislation? [read more]
Item
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The Victorian OHS Act, 2004 - What's new?
The OHS legislation was passed by the Victorian upper house in December, 2004, with most of the provisions of the new Act to come into effect July 1, 2005. What are the main differences between this Act and the 1985 Act? [read more] -
Important definitions
What does 'reasonably practicable' mean? How has the definition of 'health' changed? [read more] -
Objects & Principles
What are the objects and principles of the 2004 OHS Act? [read more] -
Duties of Employers
What duties do employers have under the 2004 OHS Act?
[read more] -
Duties of Employees
Does the new Act place any extra duties on workers? Not basically... but now workers, like others, can be charged with an extra new offence. [read more] -
Duties of 'others'
Apart from employers and workers, the OHS Act places duties on other parties. [read more] -
Duty not to recklessly endanger
This is a new provision of the Act - the Duty not to recklessly endanger persons at workplaces. [read more] -
Duty to consult
The 2004 OHS Act has a separate Part on the Duty of employers to consult. [read more] -
Notifiable Incidents
The duty to notify incidents, previously a regulation, is now in the OHS Act [read more] -
Designated Work Groups
As in the 1985 Act, the OHS Act sets out how to set up DWGs, the members of which then have the right to elect an OHS rep. But there are some important differences.
[read more] -
Health and safety representatives
Election, powers and obligations of employers to OHS reps.
[read more] -
Health and Safety Committees
Employers must establish an OHS committee if an elected rep requests it. What is their role?
[read more] -
Resolution of issues
The OHS Act sets out how ohs issues must be resolved in the workplace. [read more] -
A PIN: How to use it
Help for reps on when and how to use PINs (Provisional Improvement Notices) - and links to downloading one.
[read more] -
Right of Entry provisions
The Act now grants right of entry to authorised representatives of registered employee organisations.
[read more] -
Reviewable decisions
All parties affected by decisions (and non-decisions) made by the Authority and its inspectors can apply for those decisions to be reviewed. [read more]