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Occupational Health and Safety Act

Understand how the Occupational Health and Safety Act applies to each phase of a project.

Legislative context

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OH&S Act) is the main workplace health and safety law in Victoria. It sets out the key principles, duties of employers and rights of workers with respect to occupational health and safety.

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OH&S regulations) build on the OH&S Act. The OH&S regulations set out the TAFE’s duties and obligations during infrastructure projects.

Click on the following links to access the current Victorian OH&S Act, OH&S regulations as well as other relevant legislation.

Construction works undertaken by TAFEs are covered by the OH&S Act. Key obligations under the OH&S Act are outlined below.

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The OH&S Act requires that every construction project valued at $350,000 or more, designate a principal contractor responsible for OH&S obligations at the site of the construction works (the OH&S principal contractor). Under the OH&S Act, the TAFE will initially be designated as the OH&S principal contractor until the it formally appoints the contractor (in writing or otherwise) to be the OH&S principal contractor.

Once the contractor is formally appointed as the OH&S principal contractor, the contractor is required to perform the following duties:

Despite appointing the contractor as the OH&S principal contractor, the TAFE will still have the following duties with respect to OH&S:

It is important to note that the Victorian OH&S Act is not in harmonisation with the Federal Work Health and Safety Act. This means that some of the terminology and standards in the Federal legislation do not completely align to the Victorian terminology, which may create some confusion regarding project workplace requirements.

The main point of consideration is the appointment of the OH&S principal contractor. Under federal legislation, the person with management or control over the workplace (the contractor) will automatically be responsible for risks to the health and safety of any person on that worksite. However, under Victorian legislation, you must appoint an OH&S principal contractor as outlined in the OH&S obligations for construction projects section above. In this situation, you must comply with the Victorian OH&S Act rather than the federal Work Health and Safety Act.

The following sections provide guidance on how the OH&S regulations must be applied across each phase of the project.

It is also important to note that WorkSafe will likely have the following roles across the project lifecycle under the OH&S Act:

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The main consideration of OH&S in the project definition, funding and approvals phase of the project will be accounting for the potential risks associated with OH&S throughout delivery. This may be done by including specific site risks related to OH&S in the risk register and incorporating these risks into contingency cost estimations for the project.

In the context of tender evaluation, OH&S must be included as a mandatory evaluation criterion for certain projects under the Ministerial Directions for Public Construction Procurement.

Guidance on whether the project requires the inclusion of OH&S as an evaluation criterion in the tender documentation is available.

Furthermore, tender documentation for projects valued over $350,000, will likely need to include a requirement for a health and safety coordination plan prior to commencing construction works.

You may be required to appoint an OH&S principal contractor prior to commencing construction works as a conditions precedent. Furthermore, the OH&S principal contractor may be required to submit a health and safety coordination plan before commencing work. The OH&S principal contractor will also be required to monitor, maintain and keep the plan up to date for the duration of the construction work, in line with OH&S regulations and the contract in place with the contractor (assuming this is the OH&S principal contractor).

The TAFE may wish to review the health and safety coordination plan prior to the works commencing. Furthermore, the TAFE should ensure that the OH&S principal contractor is reporting OH&S correctly, in accordance with the following project reporting guidance.

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Updated 31 December 2025

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