WHS Series –
How a PCBU manages its risks – Consultation

There is an often overlooked second and third part to a PCBU’s duty to ‘ensure health safety’.

They concern:

  • management commitment, and

  • a duty to consult where, in relation to a safety matter:

    • a PCBU – must consult with workers, and

    • all duty holders – must consult, co-operate and co-ordinate with each other.

The contents of this guide are for information purposes only and should not be treated as being legal advice.

This guide explains:

  • What consultation is.

  • Why it is important.

  • When & how to conduct each type of consultation.

Although the WHS laws contain duties to consult, it doesn’t define what consultation actually is.

One definition is that consultation is “the act of exchanging information and opinions about something in order to reach a better understanding of it or to make a decision, or a meeting for this purpose”¹.

What consultation is

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¹Cambridge Dictionary © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2025

It is required under WHS laws

Under WHS laws, safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Consultation within the workplace needs to happen to ensure everyone in the workplace shares this responsibility.

Why consultation is important

If consultation does not take place in the workplace, penalties will apply.

It creates safer workplaces

As explained by SafeWork NSW’s Code of Practice: Work health and safety consultation, cooperation and coordination², a safe workplace is more easily achieved when everyone involved in the work:

  • communicates with each other to identify both physical and psychosocial hazards and risks,

  • talks about health and safety concerns, and

  • works together to find solutions.

Effective health and safety consultation also has other benefits, namely:

  • greater awareness and commitment – because workers who have been actively involved in how health and safety decisions are made will better understand the decisions, and

  • positive working relationships – because understanding the views of others leads to greater cooperation and trust.

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²Dated December 2022.

The WHS laws requires two types of consultation which are designed to complement the health & safety duties that everyone in the workplace owes.

When & how to conduct the 2 types of consultation

The:

  • first type is between a PCBU and its workers – it requires consultation.

  • second type is between all WHS duty-holders – it requires consultation, co-operation and co-ordination of activities.

Type #1 –

Between a PCBU and its workers

What is required

A PCBU must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult its workers following the process as outlined below.

Penalties will apply if it doesn’t³.

When it is required

A PCBU is required⁴ to consult with its workers whenever there is a health & safety matter, namely when:

  • identifying hazards and assessing risks – to health and safety arising from the work carried out or to be carried out by the business or undertaking,

  • making decisions about:

    • ways to eliminate or minimise those risks,

    • the adequacy of facilities for the welfare of workers,

  • the procedures for:

    • consulting with workers,

    • resolving work health or safety issues at the workplace,

    • monitoring the health of workers, or the conditions at any workplace under the management or control of the person conducting the business or undertaking, or

    • providing information and training for workers,

  • proposing changes that may affect the health or safety of workers, and

  • carrying out any other activity prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this section⁵.

How it must be conducted

When consulting with its workers a PCBU must⁶:

  • Share relevant information with its workers – about the health & safety matter being consulted on.

  • Give workers a reasonable opportunity to:

    • express their views and to raise work health or safety issues in relation to the matter, and

    • contribute to the decision-making process relating to the matter.

  • Take the views of workers into account.

  • Advise of the outcome of the consultation in a timely manner to those workers who have been consulted.

  • Involve the health and safety representative (if any) – who represent those workers.

The PCBU and its workers are also allowed to reach agreement on how they wish to consult as long as that arrangement is not inconsistent with the above list of requirements⁷.

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³Section 47 of the WHS Act 2011.

⁴Section 48 of the WHS Act 2011.

⁵As of 26 February 2025, the regulations require consultation in relation to major hazard facilities, between designers of structures and the person who commissions the design, and in relation to an asbestos management plan.

⁶Section 48 of the WHS Act 2011.

⁷Subsections 47(2) & (3) of the WHS Act 2011.

Type #2 –

Between WHS duty-holders

What is required

Under WHS laws, if more than one WHS duty-holder has a duty in relation to the same safety matter, then they must, so far as is reasonably practicable:

  • consult and co-operate with each other, and

  • co-ordinate their activities.

This will help all duty holders to:

  • Address gaps in managing health and safety risks – that often occur when:

    • there is a lack of understanding of how the activities of each person interact, possibly in a way that may create or add to hazards and risks within the workplace,

    • duty holders assume someone else is taking care – of the particular health and safety matter, or

    • the person who takes action is not the best person to do so.

  • Understand how their activities may impact on health and safety and the actions each duty holder takes to control risks are complementary.

When it is required

SafeWork NSW’s Code of Practice: Work health and safety consultation, cooperation and coordination⁸ suggests as long a lead time as possible for the consultation process, to better align each duty holder’s efforts at cooperating with each other and coordination of their own activities.

To do so, will result in the activities being carried out in a safer, more efficient and more effective way.

How it must be conducted

The Code of Practice makes it clear that how the consultation process (followed by the obligation to cooperate and coordinate activities) is undertaken will be dependent upon:

  • the nature of the work and the workplace, and

  • what is ‘reasonably practicable’.

It also suggests that keeping a record of the process is recommended because it will:

  • enable the duty holder to:

    • demonstrate compliance,

    • better manage the risk management process, and

  • make disputes less likely.

The Code’s recommendation is that the record’s contents include:

  • The safety matter (or matters) being considered,

  • Who has been identified as being affected (or likely to be affected) by each safety matter.

  • In relation to each safety matter:

    • the key issues that were identified,

    • the decision made (including the reasons why), and

    • the action items (who, what and by when).

It recommends that duty holders include their obligations to consult, cooperate and coordinate their activities in their contractual documentation.

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⁸Dated December 2022.

Conclusion

This guide is to be read in conjunction with the guides that explain how a PCBU manages its risks by following a set process and incorporating management commitment.

As the consultation duties apply to both the PCBU and all duty holders, it is important that every duty holder understands:

  • What consultation is.

  • Why it is important.

  • When & how to conduct the 2 types of consultation.

Diagram illustrating how a PCBU manages its risks.