CheckSafe helps Australian organisations organise contractor competency evidence alongside employee records. This guide explains practical checks and points to Australian guidance on shared health and safety duties.
Understand the duties that apply to your work
Engaging a contractor does not remove your own health and safety duties. Under the model WHS framework, more than one business can owe a duty in relation to the same work. The duties and terminology depend on your jurisdiction and circumstances.
The model WHS laws operate through jurisdiction-specific legislation. Victoria has its own OHS framework.
Where businesses share a WHS duty, they must consult, cooperate and coordinate activities so far as reasonably practicable. Use Safe Work Australia’s guidance on working with other duty holders to help plan who will do what.
Understanding Your PCBU Obligations
A few principles make these obligations easy to understand:
- You cannot contract out of your health and safety duties or hand the risk to someone else
- You are responsible to the workers you influence and direct, not only those you directly employ
- You are not expected to duplicate another PCBU's effort, simply to coordinate so nothing falls through the gap
- You should agree who is best placed to manage each risk, then check that the arrangement is working
Agree how competency evidence will be collected, reviewed and kept current before work starts. Include a process for changes to personnel, equipment or scope. For Victorian work, consult WorkSafe Victoria’s general duties guidance.
Include contractor workers in your planning
Look beyond the contractor company name to the people doing the work. Confirm which roles and tasks each person will perform, what evidence is required and who will supervise or verify the work. Check the applicable duties with your state or territory regulator.
How to Manage Contractor Competency Without the Headaches
- Define the competencies, qualifications and verifications each task requires before work begins
- Collect and record evidence of contractor training and certifications up front
- Confirm that competencies are current, not simply held at some point in the past
- Use verification of competency to check that skills are applied safely in practice
- Keep contractor records in the same place as your own team, so nothing is missed
- Agree clearly who is managing which risk, and review it as the work progresses
Making Contractor Compliance Part of Your Everyday Process
Set clear requirements for each role before requesting records. Check the Australian licences, qualifications and task-specific evidence relevant to the work, and agree who can assess and approve that evidence.
How CheckSafe Helps You Manage Contractor Compliance
- Store contractor qualifications, certifications and training records in one place
- Define the competencies required for each task or site
- Manage verification of competency with preloaded or custom assessments
- Receive automatic reminders before contractor certifications expire
- Keep a single real-time view of compliance across your own team and your contractors
- Generate compliance and audit reports whenever you need them
See how CheckSafe supports contractor evidence administration and changing subcontractor crews.
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