Workplace incidents

You should be proactive in preparing for workplace incidents, as they can have a dramatic impact on your business - for example, loss of staff, decreased productivity, and repair and rehabilitation costs.

By law, you must report certain incidents such as a death, serious injury or illness to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ). You may face penalties if you fail to report these events. You are also legally obligated to prepare for emergency situations, such as fire.

Preparing for workplace incidents

Develop and implement a safety management system for addressing incidents in your workplace before they happen. A safety management system combines information, resources and processes that you need to manage workplace health and safety.

WHSQ's Serious about Safe Business pack can help you develop your own safety management system. It includes advice on:

• achieving commitment from managers
• consulting with staff
• safe work procedures
• training and supervision
• reporting incidents
• workers' compensation and return-to-work programs.

Preparing for emergency situations

You must follow the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (PDF, 531KB) to ensure you are prepared in case of fire or other emergency situations.

The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service offers comprehensive fire safety training and a range of other products and services for workplaces in businesses and industry. Learn more about developing fire safety documents including a fire evacuation plan.

You should also consider emergencies specific to your location, such as floods or cyclones, and implement plans for dealing with them. Learn more about preparing your business for emergencies and disasters.

Reporting and recording workplace incidents

You are legally required to report 'notifiable' workplace incidents. If you fail to report a notifiable incident, you may face penalties. Notifiable incidents include:

• death
• serious bodily injury
• work-caused illness
• dangerous events
• dangerous electrical events
• serious electrical incidents
• major accidents.

If the incident involves a death, you must notify WHSQ immediately by phoning 1300 369 915.

To report notifiable incidents that don't involve a death, you must complete an incident notification form and submit it within 24 hours.

Other 'non-notifiable' incidents don't need to be reported; however, WHSQ recommends that you record and investigate them so that you can prevent something similar from happening again. Find out how to record a non-notifiable incident.

Investigating workplace incidents

You must investigate workplace incidents, whether they are reported to WHSQ or not, and find a solution.

To investigate an incident, you need to collect information and establish facts about the incident - who was involved, what happened, where and how it happened, and why. This information will help you work out how to fix the problem. You may appoint trained safety advisors, workplace health and safety representatives, or committees to conduct an internal investigation and make recommendations.

Resolving and recovering from workplace incidents

Once you have completed an investigation of a workplace incident and found a solution, you should reassess workplace health and safety policies, procedures and systems. You may need to implement new guidelines for safe work, review staff training and change work spaces and equipment.

A workplace incident may involve workers' compensation. Under workers' compensation laws, you may be required to develop a rehabilitation return-to-work plan for an injured worker. Read more about workers' compensation.

Learn about preparing an incident response plan as part of your business continuity planning.

Related links

• Read about legal obligations when training staff.