Overlapping Duties ensures businesses work together for the health and safety of everyone in the workplace and is a fundamental part of HSWA’s design.
Because businesses have duties to all workers and others affected by their work – not just those they directly employ or engage – they may well have overlapping duties.
Where those duties overlap, PCBUs need to consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities to meet their health and safety responsibilities to workers and others.
Ensuring businesses work together for the health and safety of everyone in the workplace is a fundamental part of the design of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).
When two or more businesses are working together at the same location or through a contracting chain, they must work together to fulfill their duties of care.
Where those duties overlap, they need to consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities to meet their health and safety responsibilities to workers and others.
When there are multiple businesses at the same location, each business must do what they can, within their influence and control, to keep workers safe. In these situations, the most effective way to manage workplace health and safety is by working together.
In general terms, when we talk about businesses working together, we mean that all businesses must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities with other businesses particularly when there are overlapping duties in relation to workplace health and safety.
Overlapping duties mean that more than one business has health and safety duties in relation to the same matter.
Working out the extent of your duty
The extent of your duty to manage risk depends on the ability of your business to influence and control the matter. Where there are overlapping duties, the extent of each business’s responsibility to carry out its duties will most likely be different. This will depend on what ability your business has to influence and control the health and safety matter (i.e. the more influence and control your business has over a health and safety matter, the more responsibility you are likely to have).
For example, a business can have influence and control over health and safety matters through:
- control over work activity: a business in control of the work activity may be in the best position
to control the health and safety risks. - control of the workplace: a business that has control over the workplace (and/or plant and structures at the workplace) will have some influence and control over health and safety matters
arising from work carried out by another business. - control over workers: a business will have more influence and control over its own workers and contractors than those of another business.
A business with a higher level of influence and control (and with the greatest share of the responsibilities) will usually be in the best position to manage the associated risks.
A business with less control or influence may fulfill its responsibilities by making arrangements with the business with the higher level of influence and control.
Can a business contract out of its duties?
A business can’t contract out of its duties but can enter reasonable agreements with other businesses to meet their duties. However, these businesses still retain the responsibility to meet their duties. Each business should have monitoring in place to ensure everyone is doing what they agreed to do.
Questions to ask during consultation where overlapping duties exist?
What work activities will each business carry out? For example:
- What will each business do?
- How will they do it?
- When will they do it?
- Where will it be done?
- What plant or substances may be used?
- Which workers will be involved in the work activity?
- What other people may be affected by the work activity (other than workers)?
- How could one business’s work activities affect the work of the other businesses?
- Will one business’s work activities introduce or increase the health and safety risks to other businesses (and other people) at the workplace or down a contracting chain?
- How could each business’ work activities affect the work environment?