20.1 Statutory WHS Duties, Supervision & Duty of Care

Statutory WHS Duties, Supervision & Duty of Care

Quick Answer: The PCBU holds the primary duty to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. Workers must take reasonable care for their own and others' safety and follow reasonable instruction. Apprentices must be supervised by a licensed electrical worker. Every high-risk task gets a SWMS or JSA before it starts, and controls follow the hierarchy — PPE last.

Why Safety Law Is a Critical Capability

Two of the 31 critical EPCs are pure workplace safety law and practice. Assessors ask about them because an electrician who understands earthing but not their duty of care is still a danger — most electrical fatalities involve a competent person who took a shortcut.

In Queensland these duties come from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and the Electrical Safety Act 2002 together, with the Electrical Safety Office administering the electrical arm.

Who Holds Which Duty

"So far as is reasonably practicable" weighs the likelihood and degree of harm, what the person knows or ought to know about the hazard and its controls, the availability and suitability of controls, and cost — with cost only relevant where it is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

Duty is not transferable. A PCBU cannot contract out of it, and having several PCBUs on a site means each holds the duty concurrently and must consult, cooperate and coordinate.

Supervision of Apprentices and Trainees

This is specific published knowledge in UEEEL0039 and it is routinely examined.

• An apprentice may perform electrical work only under the supervision of a person licensed to perform that work.
• Supervision level is matched to the apprentice's stage of training and to the risk of the task: direct, continuous supervision for early-stage or higher-risk work; more general supervision for tasks the apprentice has demonstrated competence in.
• The supervisor must be able to intervene — supervision from another site is not supervision.
• The supervisor retains responsibility for the compliance and safety of the work.
• An apprentice who has not completed the capstone is not licensed and cannot perform electrical work unsupervised, regardless of how much of the qualification is complete.

A common written stem describes a fourth-year apprentice left alone to complete a switchboard change-over. The correct answer names the supervision breach, not just the technical risk.

SWMS and JSA

A safe work method statement or job safety analysis is prepared before work starts. UEEEL0039's performance evidence explicitly requires preparing a SWMS or JSA for effective safe isolation.

Structure:

1. Break the task into steps in the order they will be performed.
2. Identify the hazards at each step — electrical, working at height, confined space, manual handling, asbestos, traffic, others' work.
3. Assess the risk of each hazard.
4. State the control for each, chosen by the hierarchy.
5. Name who is responsible for each control.
6. Communicate it to everyone doing the work, and have them sign on.
7. Review it if conditions change — a SWMS written for a dry day does not cover work in rain.

A SWMS filed in the ute and never read is a paperwork exercise, not a control.

The Hierarchy of Control

Elimination — isolating and proving dead — is always the first answer on an electrical safety question. PPE is never the primary control for an electrical hazard; it is the last line for residual risk. A stem where the candidate reaches for gloves before attempting isolation is designed to fail.

Consultation, Committees and Reporting

• Consultation with workers is a legal duty when identifying hazards, making decisions about controls and proposing changes affecting health and safety.
• Health and safety representatives are elected by work groups and can issue provisional improvement notices and direct that unsafe work cease.
• Health and safety committees bring worker and management representatives together to develop and review policy and procedures. Know that they exist, who sits on them and what they do.
• Incident reporting — near misses and incidents are reported internally so causes can be addressed. Notifiable incidents (death, serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident, which for electrical work includes electric shock in specific circumstances) must be notified to the regulator immediately and the site preserved until told otherwise.

Personal Safety Practices (EPC 43)

• Inspect tools and test instruments before use; discard damaged leads and probes.
• Use test instruments of the correct category rating for the location.
• Prove your tester on a known live source before and after proving dead.
• Wear appropriate PPE for the residual risk, correctly fitted and maintained.
• Maintain housekeeping — trip hazards and clutter cause more electrician injuries than shock.
• Know the site emergency procedures, the location of the nearest first-aid kit and defibrillator, and the emergency isolation point before you start.
• Stop work and reassess when conditions change.