Lone worker safety in Australia: what the law says about working alone

The short answer

Under the model Work Health and Safety Regulations (regulation 48), a business must manage the risks to workers who do remote or isolated work, and must provide a system of work that includes effective communication with them. Every Australian jurisdiction except Victoria has adopted laws based on the model WHS laws; Victoria has its own occupational health and safety laws.

What counts as remote or isolated work?

The model WHS Regulations define remote or isolated work as work that is isolated from the assistance of other persons because of location, time or the nature of the work. Assistance includes rescue, medical assistance and the attendance of emergency service workers.

That covers more people than the word "remote" suggests. A worker can be isolated because of where they are, such as a pump station, a mine bench or a rail corridor with no phone signal; because of when they work, such as a night shift on their own; or because of the work itself, which keeps them out of sight and earshot of anyone who could help.

What the law requires

Regulation 48 of the model WHS Regulations has two parts:

• Manage the risks. A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must manage risks to the health and safety of a worker associated with remote or isolated work, in accordance with Part 3.1 of the Regulations.
• Provide effective communication. In minimising those risks, the PCBU must provide a system of work that includes effective communication with the worker.

Part 3.1 sets out how risks are managed: identify reasonably foreseeable hazards; eliminate risks so far as is reasonably practicable, or if that is not reasonably practicable, minimise them using the hierarchy of control measures; keep control measures effective; and review them, including when they are not working or the work changes.

The model laws only take effect where a state or territory has adopted them, and each jurisdiction may vary them. Check the law and guidance from the work health and safety regulator where your people work.

What "effective communication" means in practice

The Regulations do not prescribe a particular device. The test is whether the system actually works for the work being done, where it is being done. Questions worth asking:

• Does it work where the person is? A mobile phone is not effective communication in a place with no coverage.
• Can the person raise the alarm in an emergency? If they are hurt, a simple, quick way to call for help matters more than a full conversation.
• Does someone receive it and act on it? An alarm that nobody monitors is not a system of work. Decide who receives alarms, at what hours, and who responds.
• Do you know roughly where to send help? Responders need to know where the worker is or was.
• What happens when nobody hears from the worker? Check-in arrangements cover the case where the person cannot raise the alarm themselves.
• Is it maintained and tested? Control measures must stay fit for purpose, so devices need charging, testing and replacing, and people need training to use them.

Common options include scheduled check-ins, two-way radio, satellite communication devices, and duress or panic alarms. Most workplaces combine more than one, chosen through their risk assessment.

A working alone risk assessment: what to cover

• Who works alone or in isolation, where, when and for how long.
• What could go wrong: injury, sudden illness, vehicle incidents, the environment, animals, or aggression from other people.
• How far help is, and how long it would realistically take to reach the person.
• Whether the work could be done without isolation, for example with a second person or at a different time.
• Which communication and alarm arrangements work in each location, including where there is no mobile coverage.
• What workers themselves say about the risks. Consulting workers is part of managing work health and safety.

What a working alone policy usually includes

• Which roles and tasks count as remote or isolated work.
• The communication and check-in arrangements for each, and the equipment provided.
• How alarms are received, who responds and how they are dispatched.
• Training, equipment checks and how often the arrangements are reviewed.
• Work that must not be done alone.

Where Lone Worker SOS fits

Lone Worker SOS is TOM SHAW's answer to the communication gap for people who work beyond mobile coverage. The worker carries a simple panic button; pressing it sends the alarm. A radio gateway in the work vehicle hears the button across the site and sends the alarm out over mobile where there is signal, or by satellite where there isn't. The control centre sees who pressed, which button and where the alarm was received, and dispatches a responder. It is one part of a system of work, alongside your risk assessment, procedures and training.

Sources

• Safe Work Australia, Model Work Health and Safety Regulations (consolidated 1 July 2024): regulation 48 and Part 3.1.
• Safe Work Australia, Remote and isolated work.
• Safe Work Australia, Legislation: which jurisdictions have adopted the model WHS laws.