Incident Notification

The employer must notify the Authority as soon as practicable of the occurrence of a reportable incident by phoning 1800 019 115. The employer must also provide the Authority written notification on the incident, in an approved form (FM137), within 48 hours after its occurrence. Please see information bulletin 09.01.04 Legislation - notification of incidents and accidents for guidance on reportable incidents.

Section 64 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act sets out the criteria for incidents (including work related accidents) that are reportable to the Authority. It is an offence to fail to report an incident that meets any of these criteria and penalties apply.

The purpose of the requirements to notify the Authority of certain incidents is to ensure that the regulator is made aware of situations where there has been either a death or serious injury or there was a potential for this to occur. This enables the Authority to make sure that causes are identified and appropriate action taken to prevent such incidents in the future. The Authority may also investigate a workplace incident to determine whether those with duty under the Act have met that duty and take whatever further action is appropriate in the circumstances.

Under the Act, a ‘reportable incident’ is any of the following circumstances:

• A work-related accident (as above) or
• An incident at a workplace creating a risk of a work-related accident and consisting of:
  • a major structural failure or collapse; or
  • an explosion, implosion or fire; or
  • the escape, spillage or leakage of a harmful, or potentially harmful, substance; or
  • the fall of an object from a height; or
  • the failure of a system on which the health or safety of workers is dependent (such as a ventilation system in a mine); or
• An electric shock suffered at the workplace; or
• An incident classified by the regulations as a reportable incident - Regulation 46 requires an accident involving a hazardous activity for which a risk management plan is required to be reported under this section.