If you run a business in Victoria, WorkSafe is your regulator. But what that means in practice, what they can do, what they will do, and what they expect from you, is often poorly understood. This post breaks it down.
Who is WorkSafe Victoria?
WorkSafe Victoria is a statutory authority established under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act). It is the body responsible for administering and enforcing Victoria's workplace health and safety laws.
Those laws include the OHS Act itself, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, the new Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, the Equipment (Public Safety) Act 1994, and their associated regulations.
WorkSafe is not just an enforcement body. The OHS Act gives it a dual role: help workplaces get it right, and hold them accountable when they don't.
What powers does WorkSafe have?
Under the OHS Act, WorkSafe's functions include:
Monitoring and enforcing compliance with the OHS Act and Regulations. This is the function most employers are aware of, inspectors visiting workplaces, issuing notices, and prosecuting breaches.
Making recommendations to the Minister on regulations and compliance codes. WorkSafe doesn't write the law, but it advises on what the law should say.
Providing guidance and advice to employers and employees about their duties, obligations, and rights. WorkSafe publishes compliance codes, guidelines, and fact sheets, and its inspectors can give advice during workplace visits.
Promoting research and information sharing to identify strategies for improving occupational health and safety.
Obtaining information. WorkSafe has the power to compel a person to provide documents or information to check whether a duty holder has complied with the law, or to investigate a suspected breach. You must comply unless you have a reasonable excuse or doing so would be self-incriminating.
Accepting enforceable undertakings. If a person has, or is alleged to have, breached the OHS Act, WorkSafe can accept a written undertaking. This is a commitment from an organisation to make specific health and safety improvements within a timeframe, instead of being prosecuted. Failing to comply with an enforceable undertaking is itself an offence.
What is "constructive compliance"?
WorkSafe describes its approach as "constructive compliance." The idea is to balance positive motivation (guidance, education, advice) with strong deterrents (notices, prosecutions, penalties).
In practice, this means an inspector visiting your workplace is not there seeking to punish. They may be responding to a complaint, following up on a notifiable incident, or conducting a proactive inspection of a particular industry or hazard. In many cases, they will offer guidance on how to fix the issue before it escalates.
That said, constructive compliance does not mean soft enforcement. Where WorkSafe identifies a serious or repeated breach, it will act, and the penalties under the OHS Act are substantial.
What can inspectors do when they attend your workplace?
WorkSafe inspectors have broad powers under the OHS Act. When they attend a workplace, they can:
- Enter and inspect any workplace at any reasonable time without prior notice
- Interview any person at the workplace
- Inspect, examine, and take samples of anything at the workplace
- Require the production of documents
- Take photographs, video, or audio recordings
- Seize anything that may be evidence of an offence
- Issue improvement notices, prohibition notices, or non-disturbance notices
An inspector can attend your workplace for a range of reasons: a scheduled inspection, a complaint from an employee or member of the public, a notifiable incident, a provisional improvement notice that requires review, or an unresolved OHS issue.
What WorkSafe expects from you
WorkSafe does not expect perfection. It expects you to be able to demonstrate that you are actively managing health and safety risks, that you have identified hazards, assessed risks, implemented controls, and reviewed whether those controls are working.
The standard is "so far as is reasonably practicable" (SFAIRP). You are not required to eliminate every conceivable risk. You are required to do what a reasonable person in your position would do, having weighed the likelihood and severity of the risk against the cost and feasibility of the control.
If an inspector attends your workplace and you can show a functioning safety management system, evidence of consultation with workers, and reasonable controls for the hazards present, the visit is far more likely to end with advice than enforcement action.
Key takeaway
WorkSafe is a regulator, not an enemy. Its statutory role is to help Victorian workplaces become safer. The best way to manage your relationship with WorkSafe is to manage your hazards before they arrive.