Notify WorkSafe ACT

What is a notifiable incident?

Notifiable incidents include:

• the death of a person
• a serious injury or illness of a person
• a dangerous incident
• sexual assault incident, including a suspected incident

Sexual assault incident

A sexual assault incident is a notifiable incident from 9 June 2023.

For the purposes of notifying WorkSafe ACT, a sexual assault incident means an incident (including a suspected incident) in relation to a workplace, that exposes a worker or any other person at the workplace to sexual assault.

For more information on how to identify workplace sexual assault and what to do about it, go to Workplace sexual assault.

Serious injury or illness

A serious injury or illness includes:

• an injury or illness that requires immediate treatment in hospital as an inpatient in a hospital, or
• when immediate treatment is required for:
  • amputation
  • serious head, eye or burn injury
  • degloving or scalping
  • spinal injury
  • loss of bodily function
  • serious laceration, or

• exposure to a substance which requires medical treatment within 48 hours

Note, under the Work Health and Safety Act (Part 3 Section 36) medical treatment means treatment by a medical practitioner.

Dangerous incident

A dangerous incident means anything related to a workplace that exposes a worker or any individual to a serious health or safety risk from an immediate or imminent exposure to:

• an uncontrolled escape, spillage, or leakage of a substance
• an uncontrolled implosion, explosion, or fire
• an uncontrolled escape of gas or steam
• an uncontrolled escape of a pressurised substance
• electric shock
• the fall or release from a height of any plant, substance, or thing
• the collapse, overturning, failure, malfunction of, or damage to, any plant that is required to be authorised for use by the Regulation
• the partial or full collapse of a structure
• the collapse or failure of an excavation or of any shoring supporting an excavation
• the inrush of water, mud, or gas in workings, in an underground excavation or tunnel
• the interruption of the main system of ventilation in an underground excavation or tunnel
• another event prescribed in the Regulation

Dangerous occurrence

You must report a dangerous occurrence under the Dangerous Substance Act 2004 (the DS Act) if;

• a person in control of premises believes there is a substantial likelihood of a dangerous occurrence happening
• there is a dangerous occurrence as defined under the DS Act.

A dangerous occurrence includes:

• an incident causing or creating a substantial risk of:
  • death or serious harm to a person, whether at the premises or elsewhere
  • substantial damage to property or the environment, whether at the premises or elsewhere
• anything declared by regulation to be a dangerous occurrence
• any other incident involving a serious and immediate risk of anything mentioned above

Examples of dangerous occurrences include:

• a spill or other loss of containment of a dangerous substance
• an uncontrolled emission of a dangerous substance
• a fire, explosion, or release of energy.

Information required for notifiable incident reporting

For sexual assault incident reporting:

The PCBU is only able to provide:

1. the name and contact details of the person conducting the business or undertaking (PCBU)
2. a description of the workplace where the incident happened which is being limited to the industry the business relates to, and
3. whether or not the incident was reported to the police.

For all other WHS notifiable incidents:

A clear description of the incident with as much detail as possible will help WorkSafe ACT assess if the incident is notifiable.

WorkSafe ACT may contact you for further information if needed. All work health and safety regulators have agreed that the following information should be collected:

• the type of notifiable incident and a description
• incident address, date, and time
• details describing the specific location such as section of the warehouse or the piece of equipment that the incident involved to help instructions about site disturbance
• injured person's name, occupation, date of birth, address, and contact
• relationship of the injured person to the notifier
• description of serious injury or illness
• initial treatment of serious injury or illness where the patient has been taken for treatment (if applicable)
• legal and trading name of the person conducting a business or undertaking
• business address (if different from incident address), ABN/ACN and contact details (including phone number and email)
• action taken or intended to be taken (if any) to prevent recurrence
• notifier's name, salutation, contact phone number and position at workplace
• name, phone number and position of person to contact for further information (if different from above)

You must immediately notify WorkSafe ACT and provide the information you have. If we need more information, we will let you know.

You may be directed by WorkSafe ACT to preserve the scene until an inspector can complete and inspection when you report a notifiable incident or dangerous occurrence.

Notification of legacy engineered stone work

Before carrying out, or directing someone to carry out, work that involves processing legacy engineered stone (such as engineered stone benchtops, panels; or slabs that are already installed) you need to notify WorkSafe ACT using this form.

Email completed forms to ESNotifications@worksafe.act.gov.au.

Notify WorkSafe ACT poster

To download a copy of a notifying WorkSafe ACT educational poster detailing when and how to notify WorkSafe ACT of a notifiable incident, click here.

Upgrading a notification

If a notifiable incident escalates from a serious illness or injury to a death, the person conducting a business or undertaking must provide separate notification to WorkSafe ACT immediately after becoming aware that the person has died.

Workplace concerns or complaints

If you have a concern or complaint about a workplace or have seen something that doesn't feel right, then you can submit a report to WorkSafe ACT. When reporting a workplace concern or issue, you can either choose to identify yourself or remain anonymous.

Psychosocial hazards

If you have experienced a psychosocial hazard such as workplace bullying , you can also complete a psychosocial incident form and send it back to us. Please refer to the Psychosocial hazards page for more information.

Contact us

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After hours, call us on 0419120028

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Email us

General enquiries
Email: worksafe@worksafe.act.gov.au

Send us a letter

WorkSafe ACT
PO Box 158
CANBERRA ACT 2601