Incident notification in NSW - information sheet

Businesses and undertakings must notify SafeWork NSW of certain ‘notifiable incidents’ at work. This information sheet will help you decide when you need to notify SafeWork NSW of a work-related death, injury, illness or dangerous incident.

SafeWork NSW is committed to preventing work-related deaths and injuries. Notifying the regulator of ‘notifiable incidents’ can help identify causes of incidents and prevent similar incidents at your workplace and other workplaces.

The WHS Act 2011 requires:

• a ‘notifiable incident’ to be reported to the regulator immediately after becoming aware it has happened
• if the regulator asks—written notification within 48 hours of the request, and
• the incident site to be preserved until an inspector arrives or directs otherwise (subject to some exceptions).

Failing to report a ‘notifiable incident’ is an offence and penalties apply.

What is a ‘notifiable incident’

A ‘notifiable incident’ is:

• the death of a person
• a ‘serious injury or illness’, or
• a ‘dangerous incident’

arising out of the conduct of a business or undertaking at a workplace.

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

Serious injury or illness

Only the most serious health or safety incidents are notifiable, and only if they are work-related. They trigger requirements to preserve the incident site pending further direction from the regulator.

Serious injury or illness must be notified if the person requires any of the types of treatment in the following examples:

Immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital

Admission into a hospital as an in-patient for any duration, even if the stay is not overnight or longer.

Does not include:

• out-patient treatment provided by the emergency section of a hospital (i.e. not requiring admission as an in-patient)
• admission for corrective surgery which does not immediately follow the injury (e.g. to fix a fractured nose).

Immediate treatment for the amputation of any part of the body

Amputation of a limb such as arm or leg, body part such as hand, foot or the tip of a finger, toe, nose or ear.

Immediate treatment for a serious head injury

Includes:

• fractured skull
• loss of consciousness
• blood clot or bleeding in the brain
• damage likely to affect brain or facial function
• temporary or permanent amnesia.

Does not include:

• a bump to the head resulting in a minor contusion or headache.

Immediate treatment for a serious eye injury

Includes:

• injury causing, or likely to cause, total or partial loss of vision
• object penetrating the eye (for example, metal fragment or wood chip)
• exposure to substances that pose a risk of serious eye damage.

Does not include:

• Eye exposure to a substance that merely causes irritation.

Immediate treatment for a serious burn

A burn requiring intensive care or critical care which could require compression garment or a skin graft.

Does not include:

• minor burns requiring only basic first aid (such as cleaning and dressing the wound).

Immediate treatment for the separation of skin from an underlying tissue (such as de-gloving or scalping)

Separation of skin from an underlying tissue such that tendon, bone or muscles are exposed (de-gloving or scalping).

Does not include:

• minor lacerations.

Immediate treatment for a spinal injury

Injury to the cervical, thoracic, lumbar or sacral vertebrae including the discs and spinal cord.

Does not include:

• acute back strain.

Immediate treatment for the loss of a bodily function

Loss of bodily function, including:

• loss of consciousness
• loss of movement in a limb
• loss of senses (such as smell, taste, sight or hearing)
• loss of function of an internal organ.

Does not include:

• fainting
• sprain or strains.

Immediate treatment for serious lacerations

Includes:

• deep or extensive cuts that cause muscle, tendon, nerve or blood vessel damage or permanent impairment.
• deep puncture wounds.
• injuries requiring stitching or treatment to prevent blood loss, infection or loss of function.

Medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance

Medical treatment (by a doctor) required within 48 hours of exposure to a harmful substance.

Exposure includes:

• chemicals
• airborne contaminants
• human or animal blood and bodily substances.

Notification is also required for the following serious illnesses:

Any infection where the work is a significant contributing factor. This includes any infection related to carrying out work:

1. with micro-organisms
2. that involves providing treatment or care to a person
3. that involves contact with human blood or body substances
4. that involves handling or contact with animals, animal hides, skins, wool or hair, animal carcasses or animal waste products.

The following occupational zoonoses contracted in the course of work involving handling or contact with animals, animal hides, skins, wool or hair, animal carcasses or animal waste products:

1. Q fever
2. Anthrax
3. Leptospirosis
4. Brucellosis
5. Hendra Virus
6. Avian Influenza
7. Psittacosis.

Treatment

‘Immediate treatment’ means the kind of urgent treatment that would be required for a serious injury or illness. It includes treatment by a registered medical practitioner, a paramedic or registered nurse.

‘Medical treatment’ refers to treatment by a registered medical practitioner (a doctor).

Even if immediate treatment is not readily available, for example because the incident site is rural or remote or because the relevant specialist treatment is not available, the notification must still be made.

Only work-related incidents are notifiable

To be notifiable, an incident must arise out of the conduct of the business or undertaking. An incident is not notifiable just because it happens at or near a workplace.

Incidents may happen for reasons which do not have anything to do with work or the conduct of the business or undertaking, for example:

• a worker or another person suffers a heart attack while at work which is unrelated to work or the conduct of the business or undertaking
• an amateur athlete is injured while playing for the local soccer team and requires immediate medical treatment (this is not work)
• a person driving to work is injured in a car accident (where driving is not part of their work)
• a person with epilepsy has a seizure at work.

These kinds of incidents are not notifiable.

Work-related incidents that occur outside a workplace may be notifiable

Work-related incidents may affect people outside the workplace. These may still be notifiable if they involve a death, serious illness or injury or a dangerous incident.

For example:

• an object like a hand tool falls off a multi-storey building under construction hitting a person below
• scaffold collapse that causes a risk of serious injury to persons adjacent to a construction site
• an awning over a shop-front collapses, hitting a person underneath it.

Appendix A provides more information about incidents at public places or sporting events.

Who is responsible for notifying?

Any person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) from which the ‘notifiable incident’ arises must ensure the regulator SafeWork NSW is notified immediately after becoming aware it has happened.

Procedures should be put into place to ensure work health and safety incidents are promptly notified to the people responsible for responding to them, for example a manager and then notified to SafeWork NSW, if required.

Incidents involving multiple businesses or undertakings

If a ‘notifiable incident’ arises out of more than one business or undertaking then each must ensure that the incident has been notified to SafeWork NSW.

There is no need for all duty holders to notify - only one needs to. However, all duty holders retain their responsibility to notify, regardless of any agreement between them.

In these circumstances the duty holders must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate to put appropriate reporting and notification arrangements in place.

For example, contractors at a construction workplace may agree that the principal contractor for the workplace will notify all ‘notifiable incidents’ that occur at the workplace.

Incidents involving a ‘State-based contractor working for a Commonwealth entity’

Workplaces shared by a Commonwealth entity and one or more state-based contractors may be covered by both Commonwealth and state or territory work health and safety (WHS) laws.

For example an asbestos removal company is engaged by the Department of Defence (Defence) to carry out asbestos removal work at Randwick Army Barracks in Sydney, and a dangerous incident occurs (as defined above). Because the incident has occurred at a place where work is carried out for Defence (on behalf of the Commonwealth) the company must ensure that both Comcare and SafeWork NSW are notified of the incident. Defence and the company may co-operate so that only one notification is made to Comcare on behalf of both.

When and how to notify

You must notify SafeWork NSW immediately after becoming aware of a ‘notifiable incident’. Incidents can be notified 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by calling 13 10 50.

SafeWork NSW have adopted a common-sense approach to assessing whether an incident has been notified immediately. This means incidents must be notified as soon as the particular circumstances permit.

In general a PCBU ‘becomes aware’ of a notifiable incident once any of their supervisors or managers becomes aware of the incident. For example, when a worker suffers a serious injury and reports it to their immediate supervisor, it is at this point that the PCBU is considered to be aware of the incident.

It is therefore essential to develop internal communication systems to ensure health or safety incidents are promptly brought to the relevant persons’ attention.

What information will be requested?

At first, SafeWork NSW will ask for a clear description of the incident with as much detail as possible. This will help SafeWork NSW assess whether or not the incident is notifiable and the need for a follow-up investigation. The following information is usually requested:

What happened (summary)

provide a brief overview of the incident

select incident type:

• death
• serious injury or illness
• dangerous incident.

Date and time:

• when did the incident occur?

Location details

Incident address:

• full address of where the incident occurred

Specific location:

• provide details such as:
  • area of the site (e.g. warehouse section)
  • equipment involved
• include anything that may affect site disturbance instructions.

Incident description

Detailed description:

• describe what happened, including:
  • sequence of events
  • key contributing factors (if known).

Person(s) involved

Injured person details:

• name
• date of birth
• address
• contact number.

Work details:

• occupation
• relationship to the business or undertaking.

Injury and treatment (if applicable)

Injury details:

• nature of the injury or illness
• Treatment provided:
• initial treatment given

Treatment location:

• where the person was taken (e.g. hospital or clinic).

Business details (PCBU)

Business information:

• legal name
• trading name.

Contact details:

• business address (if different from incident location)
• ABN/ACN
• phone number
• email.

Actions taken

Response and prevention

• actions taken
• actions planned to prevent recurrence.

Notification details

Notifier details

• name
• position
• contact number

Alternative contact (if different)

• name
• position
• contact number

Notify immediately, and provide the information you can, even if you do not have all of the required information.

SafeWork NSW may follow-up with a request for more information later if necessary. You must provide the required information in writing within 48 hours of the request being made.

Can work continue where the incident occurred?

An incident site must not be disturbed until an inspector arrives at the site or directs otherwise (whichever is earlier). The person with management or control of the workplace is responsible for preserving the incident site, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Any evidence that may assist an inspector to determine the cause of the incident must be preserved—including any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the incident.

However, preserving an incident site does not prevent any action needed:

• to assist an injured person
• to remove a deceased person
• to make the site safe or to minimise the risk of a further notifiable incident, or
• to facilitate a police investigation.

The sooner SafeWork NSW is notified, the sooner the site can be released.

An inspector may issue a non-disturbance notice, if they consider that the incident site should remain undisturbed in order to facilitate their investigation. This notice must specify the period for which the notice is to apply—no more than seven days.

Penalties apply if an individual or body corporate fails to preserve a site.

Site preservation requirements only apply to the incident site

Requirements to preserve a site only apply to the area where the incident occurred—not the whole workplace.

If you are unsure about what you need to do, you can ask the regulatorSafeWork NSW for advice or to be excused from having to preserve the site.

Amending notifications

If you receive information that changes the incident type of a notified incident, you must notify SafeWork NSW of those changes. For example, if a notified serious injury or illness later results in the person’s death, SafeWork NSW must be advised immediately upon you learning that the person has died.

Record keeping requirements

Records of notifiable incidents must be kept for at least five years from the date of notification. Penalties apply for failing to do so.

It is useful to keep a record of having made the notification (e.g. confirmation from SafeWork NSW), and also any directions or authorisations given by an inspector at the time of notification.

Appendix

Public places and sporting events

Workplaces may also be public or partly public places, for example:

• public parks, streets
• public transport
• shopping centres
• sports facilities
• schools and colleges
• aged care facilities, hospitals and medical centres
• cafes, restaurants, hotels and other kinds of public accommodation.

Incidents involving bystanders, visitors, students, patrons or other members of the public are only notifiable if:

• there is a death
• a ‘serious injury or illness’ is suffered or there is a dangerous incident (‘near miss’ as described above), and
• the incident arises out of the conduct of a business or undertaking.
• An incident may arise out of the conduct of a business or undertaking for example because of:
• the way a work activity is organised (for example inadequate safety precautions)
• the way equipment or substances are used (for example lifts, machinery)
• the condition of a workplace (for example poorly maintained or slippery floors)
• actions of someone who is not a worker at the workplace.

If a visitor at a shopping centre is taken to hospital after sustaining a serious fracture then the incident would be notifiable. If a visitor is taken to hospital because of their pre-existing medical condition (for example heart attack, epileptic seizure at a shop) this would not be notifiable as it did not result from the conduct of the business or undertaking.

Incidents during sports activities

Work health and safety duties apply in relation to professional sports people for whom sport is work and sport organised by businesses or undertakings. They do not apply to purely social or recreational activities or activities organised by wholly volunteer associations that do not employ anyone.

For more information about the way the work health and safety laws affect volunteers and organisations with volunteers refer to the online resource kit published by Safe Work Australia.

Some sports injuries may arise from ‘work’ (for example a professional AFL footballer) while others may not (a local amateur club footballer).

Sports injuries are not notifiable if arising out of the normal conduct of a sports activity for example rough and tumble of a game.

Sports injuries are notifiable only if arising out of the conduct of a business or undertaking for example:

• the way a work activity involving sport is arranged
• the way the sporting activity is managed or controlled
• the condition, design or maintenance of premises or equipment, or
• the way work is carried out, for example inadequate supervision.

Examples of notifiable incidents include:

• the condition of the premises or sports equipment was a factor in the incident - for example where a participant suffers an injury requiring admission as an inpatient at a hospital due to tripping over on a potholed tarmac surface, or
• there was inadequate supervision to prevent an incident - like ensuring the safe use of equipment used by students on a school excursion or failings in the organisation and management of an event.