Apply WHS requirements, policies and procedures in the construction industry

This unit covers the work health and safety skills every construction worker needs on site: spotting and reporting hazards, controlling risks, dealing with hazardous materials including asbestos, planning safe work, and responding to emergencies. It matters because construction is one of Australia’s highest-risk industries — following WHS requirements, policies and procedures is how you and everyone around you get home safe.

About a 7-minute read · prints cleanly as a one-stop handout

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Overview✓ 1 · Spot & report risks✓ 2 · Hazardous materials✓ 3 · Plan & prepare✓ 4 · Safe work practices✓ 5 · Emergencies✓ Know this cold✓ Where people slip up✓ Mini-glossary✓

Before you startWhat this unit asks of you

Everything here comes down to one habit: see it, size it up, control it, report it. The five sections below match the five things you must be able to do on a real site, followed by the background knowledge an assessor expects you to know without looking it up.

How competency is shown: you must apply WHS requirements, policies and procedures on three separate, different occasions in the construction industry — one good day isn’t enough. Consistency is the evidence.

1Element oneSpot, assess and report risks

Know the difference: a hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm — an unguarded edge, a damaged lead, a chemical, noise. A risk is how likely that harm is to happen, and how bad it could be.
Walk the work area with your eyes open. Identify hazards, then assess them: who could be hurt, how likely, how severe?
Report every hazard, and the safety risk it creates, to designated personnel — your supervisor, the site safety officer or your health and safety representative (HSR). Don’t sit on it and don’t assume someone else has.
Follow safe work practices, safe work instructions and your duty of care. Under WHS law you must take reasonable care of your own safety and make sure your actions don’t put anyone else at risk.
Contribute to hazard, accident and incident reports the way your workplace procedures and the WHS legislation in your state or territory require — accurately, honestly and promptly. What you write becomes the record.

2Element twoHazardous materials and site hazards

Recognise hazardous materials on site: paints, solvents, adhesives, fuels, treated timber, silica dust, gas cylinders. Learn to read labels and pictograms.
Only handle or use a hazardous material if you’re trained and authorised, following legislative requirements and your workplace policies and procedures. The safety data sheet tells you how.
Apply controls immediately and effectively. A known hazard left uncontrolled while you finish something else is a choice — the wrong one.
Secure it with signs and symbols the moment it’s identified, so the hazard can’t catch out the next worker who walks past it.

Asbestos: if you find or even suspect asbestos-containing material (ACM) — fibro sheeting, eaves linings, vinyl floor tiles, pipe lagging, common in buildings built before 1990 — do not touch it or disturb it. Stop and report it to designated personnel straight away.

3Element threePlan and prepare for safe work

PPE, done properly: identify the right personal protective equipment and clothing for each area of construction work, wear it, fit it correctly (a loose hard hat or badly fitted respirator protects no one), use it as designed, and store it so it stays serviceable.
Select the right tools, equipment and materials for the task, and organise the job with the other people on site, following workplace procedures — sequencing work so trades don’t put each other at risk.
Work out what barricades and signage the task needs and erect them in the right location before work starts — exclusion zones around excavations, overhead work and operating plant.
Read and apply the paperwork that governs the task: safety data sheets (SDS — formerly called MSDS) for substances, job safety analyses (JSAs), and safe work method statements (SWMS), which are mandatory for high-risk construction work. They only control risk if you actually work to them.

4Element fourApply safe work practices

Work safely for everyone — yourself, other workers and the general community around the site — in line with legislation and workplace policies, on every task, not just the risky-looking ones.
Guards stay on. Use plant and equipment guards exactly as the manufacturer specifies, and as work site regulations and Australian Standards require. Never remove or bypass a guard to “get it done faster”.
Report hazards, incidents and injuries through the proper procedures to the relevant authorities. Near misses count — they’re warnings you get for free.
In areas with identified asbestos, never use prohibited tools: high-speed power tools, abrasive cutting or grinding discs, compressed air and high-pressure water. They turn ACM into deadly airborne fibres.
Know your site safety signs and do what they say — shape and colour tell you the message before you read a word:

Sign type	It means	Examples
Prohibition	You must not do this	No entry · No smoking
Mandatory	You must do this	Hard hats must be worn
Warning	Hazard nearby — caution	Forklifts operating
Danger	Hazard that could kill	Danger — asbestos · Danger — demolition
Emergency	Safety facilities & exits	Emergency exit · First aid
Fire	Fire equipment location	Fire extinguisher · Hose reel

Housekeeping is safety work. Clear and maintain your work area — offcuts, leads, spills, packaging, debris — to protect yourself and others from trips, falls and fires, and to meet environmental requirements for waste, dust and runoff.

5Element fiveFollow emergency procedures

Know who to call before you need them: identify the designated personnel for an emergency — first aiders, fire wardens, your supervisor — and how to contact them fast.
Follow workplace procedures for accidents, fire and other emergencies. Use fire equipment (extinguishers, hose reels, blankets) only if it’s within your responsibilities and training — and know which extinguisher suits which type of fire.
Learn, practise and carry out evacuation procedures: the alarm signals, your evacuation route, the assembly point, following warden instructions, and never re-entering until you’re cleared to.
Give emergency first aid for minor injuries if you’re trained to, then report the treatment details accurately to designated personnel as soon as possible. Every treatment gets recorded — no exceptions.

Knowledge evidenceKnow this cold

These are the things you should be able to explain without notes:

The WHS and environmental laws that apply in your jurisdiction. Most states and territories have adopted WHS laws based on the national model, supported by regulations and codes of practice, and enforced by your state or territory regulator (for example SafeWork NSW or WorkSafe Victoria). Know what applies where you work.
Your workplace’s own requirements — how to interpret a work order, follow site policies and procedures, and report problems up the line.
The procedures for identifying and reporting hazards, safety risks and hazardous materials — including asbestos — at your workplace.
Safe practices for dealing with hazards and hazardous materials, and how to control the risks that come with them — using the hierarchy of control:

1 Eliminate — remove the hazard entirely

2 Substitute — swap it for something safer

3 Isolate — keep people away from it

4 Engineering — guards, extraction, redesign

5 Administrative — procedures, training, signs

6 PPE — the last line of defence

↑ Most effectiveLeast effective ↓

PPE, tool selection, barricades and signage — what to use, when, and why following the safety procedures isn’t optional.
How to perform tasks safely by the book: legislative requirements plus workplace policies and procedures, together.
The reporting procedures for hazards, incidents and injuries. Serious (“notifiable”) incidents must also reach the WHS regulator.
Why the work site stays clear of risks — a tidy site prevents accidents and meets environmental requirements.
The policies and procedures for an accident, fire or other emergency at your workplace.

Common trapsWhere people slip up

✗ “I’ll report it at smoko.”

✓ Fix: hazard reporting is immediate. An unreported hazard is an uncontrolled risk, and the next person through the area doesn’t know it’s there. Tell designated personnel now, then get it in the report.

✗ Reaching for PPE as the first fix.

✓ Fix: PPE sits at the bottom of the hierarchy of control — it’s the last line of defence, not the first. Try to eliminate, substitute, isolate or engineer the hazard away before relying on what someone is wearing.

✗ “It’s probably not asbestos.”

✓ Fix: treat suspect material in pre-1990 buildings as ACM until proven otherwise. Stop, don’t disturb it, report it. And never use power tools, abrasive discs, compressed air or high-pressure water anywhere near identified asbestos.

✗ Signing the SWMS without reading it.

✓ Fix: a SWMS only controls risk if you work to it. Read it, understand it, follow it — and if the task changes from what’s written, stop work and get the SWMS revised before continuing.

✗ “No one got hurt, so there’s nothing to report.”

✓ Fix: near misses are reportable too. The scaffold plank that almost fell is tomorrow’s fatality if nobody records it and fixes the cause.

Quick referenceMini-glossary

Hazard: Anything with the potential to cause harm.
Risk: The likelihood and severity of harm actually occurring from a hazard.
Duty of care: Your legal obligation to take reasonable care for your own safety and not put others at risk.
Designated personnel: The people your workplace nominates to receive reports and act — supervisor, safety officer, first aider, warden.
HSR: Health and safety representative — elected by workers to represent them on WHS matters.
PCBU: Person conducting a business or undertaking — holds the primary duty of care under WHS laws.
SWMS: Safe work method statement — required for high-risk construction work; sets out hazards and controls step by step.
JSA: Job safety analysis — breaks a task into steps, identifying the hazard and control for each.
SDS (formerly MSDS): Safety data sheet for a hazardous chemical — its hazards, safe handling, storage and first aid.
ACM: Asbestos-containing material — never disturb it; report it on sight.
PPE: Personal protective equipment — hard hat, boots, hi-vis, gloves, eye/ear protection, respirator. Last line of defence.
Hierarchy of control: The ranked order of risk controls, from eliminate (best) down to PPE (last resort).
Notifiable incident: A death, serious injury or illness, or dangerous incident that must be reported to the WHS regulator.
Toolbox talk: A short on-site safety briefing before work starts.
Exclusion zone: A barricaded and signed area that keeps people clear of a hazard.

That’s the unit on one page

See it, size it up, control it, report it — on every task, every day, for yourself, your crew and the public. When you can do that consistently across three different occasions, you’re demonstrating this unit.