What are the standard reporting procedures of any unsafe work practices issues and breaches?

You should report any actual or potential health and safety hazard immediately to your supervisor. You do not need to wait for an inspection team to come by. In fact, health and safety legislation requires workers to report hazards to their supervisor. You can also report health and safety hazards to your health and safety committee or representative, and union.

Table of Contents Show

Notifiable incidents
When there’s an incident
Reporting an incident to the WHS regulator
Supporting information
Why have a safety reporting process?
What to report?
Where do I start?
When do I need to report an incident to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland?
Related links
What to report
Who to report to
How to report
Who actions reports
Encourage reporting*
Act upon reports

The immediate hazard reporting process allows workers to report hazardous conditions or practices as they notice them. This procedure allows for prompt reporting and steps can be taken to control the hazards without waiting for the next round of regular inspections.

Hazards can be reported verbally, electronically or by filling out company specific forms that should be available at bulletin boards or other conspicuous places. Ask your supervisor, or health and safety committee or representative if there is a formal process for reporting hazards.

If your supervisor, health and safety committee or representative, and union fail to respond to your hazard report, you may contact the government department responsible for occupational health and safety for your region for further guidance. However, before contacting a government department, trying to resolve concerns internally is encouraged

The following is an example of a hazard reporting form.

Hazard Report Form - Example
Name:	Date:
Location:
Equipment:
Description of the hazard:
Suggested corrective action:
Signature:
Supervisor's remarks:
Corrective action taken:
Signature of Supervisor:	Date:

Persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) must notify their WHS regulator when serious injuries, illnesses and dangerous incidents happen at work. These are referred to as ‘notifiable incidents’.

Notifying the WHS regulator of these serious events can help identify the cause and prevent it happening again at your workplace and other workplaces.

It is also the law to report notifiable incidents.

Notifiable incidents

A ‘notifiable incident’ is:

the death of a person
a ‘serious injury or illness’, or
a ‘dangerous incident’ that exposes someone to a serious risk, even if no one is injured.

‘Notifiable incidents’ may relate to any person—whether an employee, contractor or member of the public.

The incident notification information sheet has more information on what type of injuries, illness and incidents need to be reported.

When there’s an incident

If a notifiable incident occurs, you must:

report it to the regulator immediately, and
preserve the incident site until an inspector arrives or directs otherwise. This doesn’t prevent you helping an injured person or make the site safe.

Call 000 if there is an immediate risk to life.

Reporting an incident to the WHS regulator

Notifications need to be made directly to state, territory or Commonwealth WHS regulators. Contact your WHS regulator for advice on how to make a notification.

The Incident notification information sheet provides information on the incidents that need to be reported to the WHS regulator.

Supporting information

A safety reporting process will help you identify health and safety issues, why they occurred and how to fix them.

Why have a safety reporting process?

A good safety reporting process:

encourages your workers to speak up about issues and potential issues
motivates everyone at work to join in
provides regular discussions about health and safety and opportunities to join in
helps improve your safe work procedures and training
reports back on the actions taken to resolve issues
makes it clear what the law requires in case of a serious injury, serious illness or death at your workplace.

What to report?

Some things you should encourage workers to report include:

injuries, illnesses and fatalities
near misses
damaged or faulty equipment
housekeeping issues
health and safety hazards
suggestions for improvement.

By encouraging the reporting of hazards, near misses, and maintenance problems, you can help stop incidents from occurring.

Importantly, some injuries, illnesses and incidents must be reported to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland by law.

Where do I start?

Involve your workers when developing a safety reporting process.

Together, you should decide:

what issues to report
how to report them
who to report the issues to
how to fix issues.

Your process doesn't need to be complicated. You could use an online form, or place a dedicated notepad or whiteboard in your lunchroom.

The most important thing is to let your workers know that you're listening and willing to act when needed.

Learn more about different ways to consult with your workers and get everyone involved.

When do I need to report an incident to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland?

Workplace fatalities and certain serious incidents must be reported to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland within a certain timeframe.

If an employee is injured, there are also reporting requirements to your workers' compensation insurer.

Learn about your legal responsibility to report health and safety incidents.

Use our feedback form to tell us what you think about this toolkit.

Good reporting means:

systems and procedures are in place for reporting safety issues and incidents
health and safety issues and incidents are always reported and acted upon
risk controls are always reviewed following an incident
you notify us of serious incidents, near misses and fatalities
reports help you identify issues, why they occurred and how to fix them
reports help you identify trends, priorities and prevention measures

Talk to your workers before developing or reviewing a reporting procedure, because they witness most of the health and safety issues in your workplace and can help make sure the procedure suits your business.

What to report

injuries, illnesses and fatalities
near misses
damaged or faulty equipment
housekeeping issues
health and safety hazards
suggestions and improvements

Serious and life-threatening hazards must be reported immediately. Call SafeWork NSW immediately on 13 10 50 if there is a:

death
serious injury or illness
potentially dangerous incident

Who to report to

Workers should report health and safety issues to their:

supervisor
manager, or
health and safety representative or health and safety committee

How to report

Workers can raise health and safety issues by:

talking to a manager or supervisor
completing a hazard/incident report form
raising it at a staff meeting

A register should be kept for all issues and incidents.

Who actions reports

Appoint someone to action hazard and incident reports. This could be a supervisor, manager or health and safety representative.

Encourage reporting*

Train all your workers in the reporting procedure.
Train your workers to recognise hazards.
Encourage them to speak up quickly about safety issues.
Praise them for reporting safety issues, including near misses.
Encourage regular discussions about opportunities to improve health and safety.
Consider appointing a health and safety representative or forming a health and safety committee.

Act upon reports

Let workers know you have received their report, keep them updated on progress, and advise them of the outcome.
Address the issue immediately, if possible, and track progress until it is resolved.
Investigate each report to find why it happened - eg if there are any new hazards, if control measures are not working, or if your workers are not following procedures correctly.
Use effective control measures to manage the risk.
Review your reports regularly to identify trends.

*Some questions may not apply if you are a sole trader, unless you engage with sub-contractors, labour-hire workers, volunteers, work experience, etc.