Codes of practice for work health and safety

A code of practice provides practical guidance for your business on how to achieve health and safety standards required under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act). A code of practice also has effective ways to identify and manage risks.

Changes to the WHS Act came into effect on 1 July 2018 requiring duty holders to comply with an approved code of practice under the Act. Duty holders may, for the subject matter in the code, follow another method, such as a technical or an industry standard, if it provides an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety to the standard required in the code.

Below are the codes of practice in place:

• Abrasive blasting code of practice 2013 (PDF, 1MB)
• Cash in transit code of practice 2011 (PDF, 763KB)
• Children and young workers code of practice 2006 (PDF, 427KB)
• Concrete pumping code of practice 2005 (PDF, 897KB)
• Confined spaces code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1MB)
• Demolition work code of practice 2013 (PDF, 895KB)
• Excavation work code of practice 2013 (PDF, 2.6MB)
• First aid in the workplace code of practice 2014 (PDF, 613KB)
• Forest harvesting code of practice 2007 (PDF, 1.5MB)
• Formwork code of practice 2016 (PDF, 1.6MB)
• Foundry code of practice 2004 (PDF, 725KB)
• Hazardous manual tasks code of practice 2011 (PDF, 2.2MB)
• Horse riding schools, trail riding establishments and horse hiring establishments code of practice 2002 (PDF, 630KB)
• How to manage and control asbestos in the workplace code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1.3MB)
• How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1MB)
• How to safely remove asbestos code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1.3MB)
• Managing noise and preventing hearing loss at work code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1.2MB)
• Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace code of practice 2013 (PDF, 1.5MB)

Information on the hazardous chemicals code of practice can be found on the Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS).

• Managing risks of plant in the workplace code of practice 2013 (PDF, 1MB)
• Managing risks in stevedoring code of practice 2018 (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Managing the risk of falls at workplaces code of practice 2018 (PDF, 2.3MB)
• Managing the work environment and facilities code of practice 2011 (PDF, 712KB)
• Manual tasks involving the handling of people code of practice 2001 (PDF, 1.2KB)
• Mobile crane code of practice 2006 (PDF, 1.3MB)
• Occupational diving work code of practice 2005 (PDF, 533KB)

Information on Occupational diving operations - standards operational practice and Work health and safety and underwater diving work, incorporating recreational and occupational diving can also be found on ABLIS.

• Preparation of safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals code of practice 2011 (PDF, 1.4MB)

The National code of practice for the preparation of material safety data sheets [NOHSC:2011 (1994)] can be found on ABLIS.

• Recreational diving, recreational technical diving and snorkelling code of practice 2018 (PDF, 620KB)
• Rural plant code of practice 2004 (PDF, 643KB)
• Safe design and operation of tractors code of practice 2005 (PDF, 511KB)
• Safe design of structures code of practice 2013 (PDF, 732KB)
• Scaffolding code of practice 2009 (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Spray painting and powder coating code of practice 2013 (PDF, 1.5MB)
• Steel construction code of practice 2004 (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Sugar industry code of practice 2005 (PDF, 626KB)
• Sugar mill safety - supplement to the sugar industry code of practice 2005 (PDF, 981KB)
• Cane rail safety - supplement to the sugar industry code of practice 2005 (PDF, 903KB)
• Tilt-up and pre-cast construction code of practice 2003 (PDF, 979KB)
• Tower crane code of practice 2017 (PDF, 1.6MB)
• Traffic management for construction or maintenance work code of practice 2008 (PDF, 811KB)
• Welding processes code of practice 2013 (PDF, 899KB)

Information on the Health and safety in welding advisory standard can be found on ABLIS.

• Work health and safety consultation, co-operation and co-ordination code of practice 2011 (PDF, 486KB)

Also consider...

• Find out more about work health and safety.