| Status |
Optional (see Notes section below) |
|---|---|
| Legislation / Policy |
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00305 |
| Legislation / Policy contact | |
| Additional information |
Codes of practice - practical guides to achieving the standards of health, safety and welfare required under the WHS Act and the WHS Regulations – available at: https://www.comcare.gov.au/the_scheme/the_whs_act |
This clause does not include a general requirement on the Supplier to comply with its work health and safety obligations. This should be addressed in another clause of the Contract, noting that what will be required or appropriate will vary significantly depending on the contract.
The clause requires the Supplier to prepare and implement a Work Health and Safety Plan and to regularly update the plan to ensure it remains relevant. The Work Health and Safety Plan (and any updates) are required to be submitted to the Customer for information only – the Customer is not required to approve the Work Health and Safety Plan prior to its implementation.
The clause identifies the more common aspects that would be expected to be covered in a Work Health and Safety Plan.
The clause may need to be adapted to apply to specific contracting activities that require more robust requirements, for example where the Contract involves a construction project the clause would need to be adapted to reflect the requirements of the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth) and the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 (Cth) - see the Notes section below.
Work Health and Safety Plan
X.1 The Supplier will prepare and implement a Work Health and Safety Plan in relation to the performance of this Contract. The Supplier will submit the Work Health and Safety Plan to the Customer within 10 business days of the Contract Start Date, for information only.
X.2 The Supplier will update the Work Health and Safety Plan at intervals of not more than each four (4) months to ensure that it remains relevant and will promptly submit the updated Work Health and Safety Plan to the Customer, for information only.
X.3 The Work Health and Safety Plan should, at a minimum, detail:
- Policies and procedures that are necessary to meet any applicable legislative or regulatory work health and safety requirements;
- Potential work health and safety issues and how each is proposed to be managed, if it occurs;
- Whether any of the WHS related policies and practices, including any of the WHS Codes of practice, that the Supplier’s organisation has in place to ensure the safety and security of persons working at any site associated with the performance this Contract are applicable;
- A specific process and timetable for critical incident management; and
- The timing and content of work health and safety training.
While use of this clause is optional, contracts generally include a clause of this type.
Standardisation of contractual text results in efficiencies for both Parties to a contract. Before deciding whether a particular clause is appropriate, procurement officials should carefully consider the context of their procurement.
Clause wording would generally need to be changed where the Customer has identified a specific form/method for variations to contracts, for example, use of a contract change form or the identification of a particular person or delegate who is responsible for agreeing to variations.
Otherwise, where this clause is included, the clause wording should be used without change.
Terms that are capitalised may need to be changed to align with the Contract terminology.
