Written accounts of your work health and safety activities, near misses and incidents are important records for your business. Document what you’re doing to maintain and improve your work health and safety. Recording your work health and safety activities helps you monitor the performance of your business and meet your legal requirements.
Employer responsibilities
You will need to keep records for:
- all notifiable incidents
- all hazardous substances / chemicals with a hazardous substance register and an asbestos register (if these are in your workplace)
- plant registration documents
- tests and inspection reports for items of plant.
It’s also useful to keep records of:
- your hazard identification, risk assessment and implemented controls with a hazard and risk register and a risk control action plan
- servicing and maintenance of all items of plant and equipment
- workers’ induction and any training.
These records can help demonstrate what you have done to manage safety in your workplace. This can be important if an incident occurs requiring investigation.
Worker responsibilities
Workers need to:
- actively participate in induction and training
- report safety issues.
WHS checklist
Check the safety of your business by completing our work health and safety checklist to identify hazards at your workplace and determine which areas you may want to start with for improvement.
| Always | Sometimes | Never | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Induction records are kept for five years from the date of the last entry | |||
| Worker training records are kept | |||
| You maintain a hazard and risk register | |||
| You maintain a hazardous substance register | |||
| You maintain an asbestos register in which details are kept and is easily accessible | |||
| Testing, inspection and maintenance records of machinery and equipment are kept | |||
| Records are kept of safety issues and incidents | |||
| Are all reported safety issues and incidents actioned | |||
| Do you keep the required records and monitor your safety performance? |