Principals have a number of responsibilities in relation to a healthy and safe workplace.

• Principals must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that

• no contractor or subcontractor; and
• no employee of a contractor or subcontractor

is harmed while doing any work that they have been engaged to do.

Essentially this means that principals as a minimum should be including health and safety issues in all their planning processes and in their formal contracting arrangements, and actively discussing these issues with their contractors.

Principals cannot contract out of this obligation.

• Principals also have to maintain accident registers of all accidents or incidents that harmed or might have harmed:

• a self-employed person while at work who was contracted to the principal; and
• any other person, resulting from the work of a self-employed person who was contracted to the principal.

• When an incident involving serious harm occurs at work, principals must:

• Advise the local Departmental regional office as soon as possible by phone or fax.
• Mail or fax written notice to the nearest Departmental regional office office within 7 days.

Go to:

• Definition of principal
• Definition of contractor
• Definition of serious harm
• Recording and reporting accidents
• Self-employed persons' duties
• Fact sheet: Principals pdf file [size: 30KB]
• Fact sheet: Contractors pdf file [size: 28KB]
• Fact sheet: People who control a place of work pdf file [size: 29KB]