Construction Safety Glossary: 34 Terms (Australia)

Asbestos register: A record of the asbestos or asbestos-containing material identified or assumed to be present at a workplace. The person with management or control of the workplace must prepare and keep it at the workplace. The register rules do not apply to domestic premises (homes). Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.421, r.422 and r.425 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
BYDA (Before You Dig Australia): The service used to request plans of underground pipes, cables and other assets for a dig site before excavation. The law requires the person managing or controlling the workplace to take all reasonable steps to get current underground essential services information before digging starts. That information must be given to the people doing the excavation. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.304 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Code of practice: Practical guidance approved by the Minister on how to meet duties under the WHS laws. A code of practice can be used in court as evidence of whether a duty was met and of what is reasonably practicable. You can follow a different method if it gives an equal or higher standard of safety. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.274 and s.275 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Competent person: In general, a person who has gained the knowledge and skills to carry out a task through training, qualification or experience. Some tasks, such as major crane inspections or asbestos clearance inspections, have stricter definitions with set qualifications. Scaffold handovers and inspections must be done by a competent person. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 19 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Confined space: An enclosed or partly enclosed space that is not designed to be occupied by people, is at normal atmospheric pressure, and has a risk from unsafe oxygen levels, flammable or harmful airborne contaminants, or engulfment. Work in or near a confined space is high risk construction work. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 19 and r.291 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Construction project: Under the model WHS Regulations, a project involving construction work that costs $250,000 or more. A construction project must have a principal contractor and a WHS management plan. In Western Australia the trigger is different: 5 or more people working, or likely to be working, at the same time on the site. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.292 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Construction work: Any work connected with building, altering, converting, fitting out, renovating, repairing, maintaining, refurbishing, demolishing or dismantling a structure. It also includes excavation, site preparation and installing or maintaining essential services in a structure. Testing, maintenance or repair work of a minor nature is not construction work. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.289 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Consultation: The duty of a business to consult, so far as reasonably practicable, with workers who are or are likely to be directly affected by a health and safety matter. For SWMS, this means involving the workers who will do the high risk construction work when the SWMS is prepared. In Victoria, affected employees and their HSRs must be consulted when a SWMS is prepared and reviewed. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.47 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Crystalline silica substance: Any material that contains at least 1% crystalline silica by weight. Before cutting, drilling, grinding or otherwise processing it with power tools, a business must assess whether the work is high risk and record that assessment in writing. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 19 and r.529CA (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Dangerous incident: An incident that exposes someone to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent event, even if nobody is hurt. Examples include an uncontrolled fire, explosion or gas leak, an electric shock, something falling from a height, collapse of a structure, collapse of an excavation or its shoring, and collapse or failure of plant that must be authorised. It is one type of notifiable incident. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.37 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Duty holder (Victoria): In Victoria, the OHS Regulations 2017 put the SWMS duty on employers and self-employed persons, rather than on a "PCBU". For labour hire, both the employer and the host employer are responsible. The employer must keep a copy of the SWMS for the duration of the high risk construction work. Source: WorkSafe Victoria: Information about Safe Work Method Statements.
Engineered stone: An artificial stone product made by combining natural stone material with resins, pigments or other chemicals, often used for benchtops. Manufacturing, supplying, processing or installing engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs is banned in Australia from 1 July 2024. Removing, repairing, making minor changes to or disposing of installed engineered stone is still allowed if controlled, and the regulator must be notified in writing before the work. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.529D, r.529F and r.529G (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
EWP (elevating work platform): Powered plant that lifts workers on a platform to work at height, such as a scissor lift or boom lift. Operating a boom-type EWP with a boom length of 11 m or more needs a high risk work licence (class WP). Boom length is the greater of the platform's maximum height or maximum outreach. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 3 item 21 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Falls hierarchy: The order of controls for falls from one level to another. First do the work on the ground or on a solid construction if reasonably practicable. If not, provide a fall prevention device, then a work positioning system if that is not reasonably practicable, and only then a fall arrest system. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.78 and r.79 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Hazardous chemicals register: A list of the hazardous chemicals used, handled or stored at a workplace, with the current SDS for each one. It must be kept at the workplace, kept up to date, and be readily accessible to workers and anyone else likely to be affected. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.346 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Hierarchy of control: The order you must work through to deal with a risk. First eliminate it if reasonably practicable; if not, minimise it by substitution, isolation or engineering controls. If risk remains, add administrative controls, and then personal protective equipment (PPE) last. A mix of controls can be used. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.36 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
High risk construction work (HRCW): The list of construction work that legally needs a SWMS before it starts. It includes a risk of falling more than 2 m, disturbing asbestos, trenches or shafts deeper than 1.5 m, work near energised electrical services, and work where powered mobile plant moves. The model WHS Regulations list 18 types; WorkSafe Victoria lists 19 because tunnels are counted separately. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.291 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
High risk work licence (HRWL): A licence needed to do certain high risk work, such as scaffolding, dogging, rigging, operating cranes, forklifts, hoists, boom-type EWPs with a boom of 11 m or more, and concrete placing booms. Each class of work has its own licence class. A high risk work licence lasts 5 years unless it is cancelled earlier. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.92 and Schedule 3 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
HSR (health and safety representative): A worker elected to represent a work group on health and safety matters. An HSR can monitor the safety measures the business takes, investigate complaints from the work group, and inquire into anything that looks like a risk to workers. Regulator guidance says an HSR should be consulted when a SWMS is developed. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.50 and s.68 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Improvement notice: A written notice from a WHS inspector who reasonably believes a person is breaking the WHS law, or has broken it and is likely to do so again. It requires the person to fix the breach, prevent it happening, or fix the things causing it. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.191 (model WHS Act as adopted).
JSA (job safety analysis): A document that breaks a specific task into steps and looks at the hazards of each step. Regulator guidance says a SWMS is generally different from task-focused documents such as a JSA or a safe operating procedure. Another document can only meet the SWMS requirements if it is prepared and used for the high risk construction work in the same way as a SWMS. Source: WorkSafe WA: Safe work method statement for high risk construction work (information sheet).
Notifiable incident: A death, a serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident arising from work. The business must notify the regulator immediately and keep the incident site undisturbed until an inspector arrives or allows it. A record of the incident must be kept for at least 5 years. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.35, s.38 and s.39 (model WHS Act as adopted).
PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking): The legal term for the business or person that has the main safety duties under the WHS Act. It covers companies, partnerships and people working alone, whether or not the business makes a profit. A self-employed tradie is a PCBU. Victoria uses "employer" and "self-employed person" instead. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.5 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Principal contractor: The business in charge of a construction project, usually the builder. It is the business that commissions the project, or another business it engages and authorises to manage the site. A construction project has only one principal contractor at a time. The principal contractor must prepare the WHS management plan and receive a copy of each SWMS before high risk construction work starts. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.293 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Prohibition notice: A direction from a WHS inspector that stops an activity, or stops it being done in a certain way, because it involves a serious risk from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard. The direction can be given verbally but must be confirmed in writing. The activity cannot restart until an inspector is satisfied the risk has been fixed. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.195 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Reasonably practicable: What is reasonably able to be done to ensure health and safety, weighing up all relevant matters. These include how likely the risk is, how bad the harm could be, what is known about the risk and how to control it, what controls are available, and the cost. Cost only rules out a control if it is grossly disproportionate to the risk. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.18 (model WHS Act as adopted).
Scaffold handover certificate: The written confirmation from a competent person that a scaffold has been completed, which must be received before the scaffold is used. It applies to suspended, cantilevered, spur and hung scaffolds and any scaffold from which a person or thing could fall more than 4 m. These scaffolds must also be inspected before use, after repairs or an incident, and at least every 30 days. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.225 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Scaffolding work: Erecting, altering or dismantling a temporary structure that supports a platform from which a person or object could fall more than 4 m. Scaffolding work needs a scaffolding high risk work licence (basic, intermediate or advanced, depending on the type of scaffold). Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 3 and Schedule 19 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
SDS (safety data sheet): A document prepared by the manufacturer or importer of a hazardous chemical, covering things like its hazards, first aid, handling and storage, and personal protection. A business must get the current SDS when the chemical is first supplied and make it readily accessible to workers who use it and to emergency services. Manufacturers must review an SDS at least every 5 years. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.330 and r.344 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Serious injury or illness: An injury or illness that needs immediate treatment as a hospital in-patient, or immediate treatment for things like an amputation, a serious head or eye injury, a serious burn, degloving or scalping, a spinal injury, loss of a bodily function or serious lacerations. It also covers medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance. It is one type of notifiable incident. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.36 (model WHS Act as adopted).
SWMS (safe work method statement): A document that sets out the high risk construction work to be done, the hazards from that work, and the controls that will be used. It must be prepared before the work starts, followed on site, and kept until the work is finished. A SWMS is an administrative control that supports higher order controls such as engineering controls. Source: WorkSafe WA: Safe work method statement for high risk construction work (information sheet).
White Card (general construction induction training card): The card that shows a person has completed general construction induction training, which everyone doing construction work must have. It shows the holder's name, issue date, a unique number and the state or territory that issued it. If the training was done more than 2 years ago, it only counts if the holder has done construction work in the past 2 years. Cards issued in other states and territories are recognised. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.317 and r.320 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
WHS management plan: A written safety plan for a construction project, prepared by the principal contractor before work on the project starts. It must name the people with safety responsibilities, set out consultation and incident arrangements and any site-specific safety rules, and explain how SWMS are collected, assessed, monitored and reviewed. Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r.309 (model WHS Regulations as adopted).
Worker: Anyone who carries out work in any capacity for a PCBU. This includes employees, contractors and subcontractors and their employees, labour hire staff, apprentices, trainees, students on work experience and volunteers. A PCBU who is an individual working in the business is also a worker. Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), s.7 (model WHS Act as adopted).

Construction safety terms explained