Western Australian Current Acts

WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2020 - SECT 26A

26A .         Duty of persons conducting businesses or undertakings that provide services relating to work health and safety

        (1)         In this section —

        relevant use , in relation to WHS services, means a use of the WHS services for a purpose for which they are provided;

        services includes any products or other things provided as part of services;

        use includes the following —

            (a)         implement;

            (b)         rely upon;

        WHS services —

            (a)         means services that relate to work health and safety; but

            (b)         does not include the following —

                  (i)         services provided under this Act by a WHS authority, a health and safety representative (or deputy) or a health and safety committee;

                  (ii)         services provided under a corresponding WHS law by a person or body corresponding to a WHS authority, a health and safety representative (or deputy) or a health and safety committee;

                  (iii)         emergency services provided by police officers, or other emergency services personnel, in situations where there is a serious risk to the health or safety of any individual;

                  (iv)         services that are subject to legal professional privilege or that would be subject to legal professional privilege but for that privilege having been waived.

        Note for this definition:

                For the purposes of paragraph (a), the services could be, for example, providing any of the following relating to work health and safety —

            (a)         recommendations or other advice;

            (b)         testing or analysis;

            (c)         other information or documents, for example, a report, plan, programme, strategy, guideline or manual;

            (d)         a training or other educational course.

        (2)         This section applies to a person (the WHS service provider ) who conducts a business or undertaking that provides WHS services —

            (a)         to a person who conducts another business or undertaking; and

            (b)         that are to be used, or could reasonably be expected to be used, at, or in relation to, a workplace at which work is carried out for the other business or undertaking.

        (3)         The WHS service provider must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the WHS services are provided so that any relevant use of them at, or in relation to, a workplace of the kind referred to in subsection (2)(b) will not put at risk the health and safety of persons who are at the workplace.

        Note for this subsection:

                The following are examples of cases in which a relevant use of WHS services might put at risk the health and safety of persons who are at a workplace —

            (a)         a recommendation that is made on how to eliminate risks to health and safety at a workplace is inadequate for that purpose so that when the recommendation is implemented at the workplace the risks are not eliminated;

            (b)         the testing of plant at a workplace for risks to health and safety fails to identify existing risks so that, when the plant is subsequently operated in reliance on the testing, workers at the workplace are exposed to those existing risks;

            (c)         a training course for workers about how they can avoid being exposed to risks to their health and safety is inadequate for that purpose so that, when the workers put their training into practice at their workplaces, they are still exposed to the risks.