Australian work health and safety law places a duty on the person conducting a business or undertaking, and that duty extends to people who are not your employees. Visitors and contractors are in scope. Here is what that means for the records you keep at the front desk.
Who the duty covers
The primary duty of care under the model WHS laws is owed to workers, which includes contractors and their employees, and to other people at the workplace, which includes visitors. There is a separate due diligence duty on officers.
Where more than one business controls the same site, duties are shared rather than transferred, which is why contractor records matter to both parties.
One thing that catches multi-state organisations
The model WHS laws have been adopted by every Australian jurisdiction except Victoria, which operates under its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Several jurisdictions have also made their own variations. If you run sites in more than one state, confirm the requirements for each rather than assuming a single national standard.
What it means at reception
| Obligation | What it looks like at the front desk |
|---|
| Know who is at the workplace | Sign-in covering visitors and contractors, not just staff |
| Provide site safety information | Induction on arrival, with the version recorded |
| Account for people in an emergency | A live list reachable from outside the building |
| Shared duties on shared sites | Records that identify the contractor company |
| Officer due diligence | Reporting that rolls up across every site |
Where the data lives
Safe Work Australia’s data portal publishes the national work-related fatality, injury and workers compensation statistics that WHS committees use to benchmark risk by industry. Two practical uses for a workplace team: sector rates justify the depth of induction and contractor screening a site applies, and the compensation data makes the cost case for prevention when the safety budget is challenged. Our comparison of visitor management software options covers the shortlist in depth.
Internally, the equivalent dataset is the sign-in record itself. Arrival patterns show when the site is busiest and therefore when supervision and first-aid coverage need to be thickest, and evacuation drill timings show whether the roll call actually completes. Regulator statistics set the benchmark; your own records show whether you would pass it.
Privacy sits alongside safety
Names, contact details, vehicle registrations and photographs collected at reception are personal information and attract privacy obligations as well as safety ones. Collect what the safety purpose requires, set a retention period rather than keeping records indefinitely, and know where the data is stored.
Where Australian multi-site organisations struggle
Different processes at each site, so evidence is inconsistent across the portfolio. Contractors in a separate book from visitors, or in none. And no central view when the question is asked at head office.
Our Australian WHS visitor obligations guide goes through this in full.
References
General information, not legal advice. Confirm what applies to your jurisdiction, sector and site.