• What law applies
• What are workplace amenities?
• General amenities requirements
• Specific amenities

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What law applies

In order to understand the workplace health and safety requirements for amenities, and your obligations under the law you must consider and understand relevant legislation and codes of practice.

General health and safety obligations
What you must do
Specific regulations for amenities

General health and safety obligations

To understand your obligations and safety requirements you must be familiar with the:

• Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 kB), which imposes obligations on people at workplaces to ensure workplace health and safety.
• The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 (PDF, 1.6 MB) describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which cause injury, illness or death.
• Codes of practice, which are designed to give practical advice about ways to manage exposure to risks common to industry.

Every Queensland employer must have workers' compensation insurance. Most employers insure with WorkCover Queensland, while a small number of large organisations have their own insurance. This insurance coverage ensures that employees injured at work receive financial support.

What you must do

It is a requirement of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 that risks must be assessed and control measures then implemented and reviewed to prevent or minimise exposure to the risks.

If the regulation describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the regulation says. If there is a code of practice that describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the code says or adopt and follow another way that gives the same level of protection against the risk.

If there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk at your workplace you must choose an appropriate way to manage exposure to the risk. People must, where there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk, take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence against the risk.

See the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 for further information.

Specific regulations for amenities

The regulation sets out the requirements for:

• toilets
• hand washing facilities
• drinking water
• dining facilities
• dressing rooms
• showers
• drinking water
• first aid
• lighting
• ventilation
• work areas and airspace.

In order to comply with the Regulation amenities provided must comply with:

• the general amenities requirements, and
• the specific amenities requirements, or 'deemed-to-satisfy', provisions, for the type of workplace, or
• an alternative solution which is at least equivalent to the 'deemed-to-satisfy', provisions and approved by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.

Please note:

The regulation aligns workplace amenity requirements with the Building Code of Australia. The Building Code of Australia (BCA) (non-Queensland Government link) and the Queensland Development Code (QDC) contain requirements concerning the design and construction of buildings and the requirements for the building such as lighting or ventilation. However the regulation is self-contained and reference need not be made to the BCA or QDC.