New Concepts. New Terms.

New Concepts.                                             New Terms.

ACCI remains committed to the harmonisation of Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws across Australia.  It is working to help achieve this.

Each State and Territory will still be responsible for its own WHS legislation and regulation, but each will be based on the Safe Work Australia Act, providing consistency across Jurisdictions. The proposed Model Work Health and Safety Act creates new ways of thinking about safety responsibilities and work. In line with the changing nature of work and workplaces the focus of the new legislation is on  work.  Hence the term ‘employer’ will be replaced by ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU) and ‘employee’ will be replaced by ‘worker’.

ACCI has compiled a list of terms, their definitions and duties. We are happy to provide this just ask.

Volunteering and the new WHS legislative package

The main health and safety duty under the model WHS Act is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers engaged in work for the business or undertaking.  This duty is owed by a ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU) to all workers including volunteer workers.

The fundamental questions are:
1. When is a volunteer a “worker” for purposes of the WHS Act?
2. When is a volunteer organisation a PCBU?

The ACCI New Concept New Terms series provides further information to assist our members deal with questions such as these. Members can contact ACCI for any topics in this series.