Last Updated: 18/9/2020

We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to contain it have the potential to significantly impact your business, particularly where the health of your family and workers are concerned.  This page is dedicated to providing the latest information on your responsibilities for WH&S and access to useful tools.

Although we are endeavouring to ensure this is kept fully up-to-date, with the rapidly changing situation, we recommend that you always review the state information direct on the relevant state website prior to making business decisions.

National COVID-19 safe workplace principles

1. All workers, regardless of their occupation or how they are engaged, have the right to a healthy and safe working environment.
2. The COVID-19 pandemic requires a uniquely focused approach to work health and safety (WHS) as it applies to businesses, workers and others in the workplace.
3. To keep our workplaces healthy and safe, businesses must, in consultation with workers, and their representatives, assess the way they work to identify, understand and quantify risks and to implement and review control measures to address those risks.
4. As COVID-19 restrictions are gradually relaxed, businesses, workers and other duty holders must work together to adapt and promote safe work practices, consistent with advice from health authorities, to ensure their workplaces are ready for the social distancing and exemplary hygiene measures that will be an important part of the transition.
5. Businesses and workers must actively control against the transmission of COVID-19 while at work, consistent with the latest advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), including considering the application of a hierarchy of appropriate controls where relevant.
6. Businesses and workers must prepare for the possibility that there will be cases of COVID-19 in the workplace and be ready to respond immediately, appropriately, effectively and efficiently, and consistent with advice from health authorities.
7. Existing state and territory jurisdiction of WHS compliance and enforcement remains critical. While acknowledging that individual variations across WHS laws mean approaches in different parts of the country may vary, to ensure business and worker confidence, a commitment to a consistent national approach is key. This includes a commitment to communicating what constitutes best practice in prevention, mitigation and response to the risks presented by COVID-19.
8. Safe Work Australia (SWA), through its tripartite membership, will provide a central hub of WHS guidance and tools that Australian workplaces can use to successfully form the basis of their management of health and safety risks posed by COVID-19.

What are the state and territory helplines an employer should contact if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19?

New South Wales – Healthdirect – 1800 022 222
Queensland – 13 Health – 13 43 25 84
Victoria – Coronavirus Hotline – 1800 675 398
South Australia – SA COVID-19 Information Line – 1800 253 787
Tasmania – Tasmanian Public Health Hotline – 1800 671 738
Western Australia – 13 26843 (13Covid)
Australian Capital Territory – Healthdirect – 1800 022 222
Northern Territory – Use the National Coronavirus Information Helpline – 1800 020 080