Commonwealth Numbered Acts

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY (COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYMENT) ACT 1991 No. 30, 1991 - SECT 29

29. (1) Where a health and safety representative for a designated work group
believes, on reasonable grounds, that a person:

   (a)  is contravening a provision of this Act or the regulations; or

   (b)  has contravened a provision of this Act or the regulations and is
        likely to contravene that provision again; being a contravention that
        affects or that may affect one or more employees included in the
        group, the representative must enter into consultations with the
        person supervising the work performed by the employee or employees in
        an attempt to reach agreement on rectifying the contravention or
        preventing the likely contravention.

(2) If, in the health and safety representative's opinion, agreement is not
reached within a reasonable time, the health and safety representative may
issue a provisional improvement notice to the person (in this section called
the "responsible person") responsible for the contravention.

(3) Where the responsible person is an employer but it is not practicable to
issue the notice to the employer by giving it to the employer, the notice may
be issued to the employer by giving it to the person who is, or who may
reasonably be presumed to be, for the time being, in charge of the activity,
undertaken by the employer, in connection with which, in the health and safety
representative's opinion, the employer is contravening, or is likely to
contravene, this Act or the regulations and, where the notice is so issued, a
copy of the notice must be given to the employer as soon as practicable
thereafter.

(4) The notice must:

   (a)  specify the contravention of the provision of this Act or the
        regulations that, in the health and safety representative's opinion,
        is occurring or is likely to occur, and set out the reasons for that
        opinion; and

   (b)  specify a period of not less than 7 days commencing on the day after
        the notice is issued, being a period that is, in the representative's
        opinion, reasonable, within which the responsible person is to take
        action necessary to prevent any further contravention of the provision
        or to prevent the likely contravention of the provision, as the case
        may be.

(5) The notice may specify action that the responsible person is to take
during the period specified in the notice.

(6) Where, in the health and safety representative's opinion, it is
appropriate to do so, the representative may, in writing and before the end of
the period, extend the period specified in the notice.

(7) Upon issuing the notice, the health and safety representative must give a
copy of the notice to:

   (a)  where the notice is issued to an employee in connection with work
        performed by the employee for an employer - that employer; and

   (b)  where the notice relates to any workplace, plant, substance or thing
        that is owned by a person, not being the responsible person or a
        person who is an employer referred to in paragraph (a) - that owner;
        and

   (c)  where the notice is issued to a person (not being an employer) who
        owns any workplace, plant, substance or thing by reason of which a
        contravention of this Act or the regulations has occurred or is likely
        to occur - the employer of the employees who work in that workplace or
        who use that plant, substance or thing.

(8) Within 7 days after the notice is issued, the responsible person, or any
other person, to whom a copy of the notice has been given under subsection
(7), may make a request to the Commission or to an investigator that an
investigation of the matter the subject of the notice be conducted.

(9) Upon the request being made, the operation of the notice is suspended
pending the determination of the matter by an investigator.

(10) As soon as possible after a request is made, an investigation must be
conducted of the work that is the subject of the disagreement, and the
investigator conducting the investigation must:

   (a)  confirm, vary or cancel the notice and notify the responsible person
        and any person to whom a copy of the notice has been given under
        subsection (2) accordingly; and

   (b)  make such decisions, and exercise such powers, under Part 4, as the
        investigator considers necessary in relation to the work.

(11) Where the investigator varies the notice, the notice as so varied has
effect, and, except in so far as it imposes additional obligations on the
responsible person, is to be taken to have always had effect, accordingly.

(12) Where the notice is issued to an employer, the employer must:

   (a)  notify each employee who is performing work for the employer and who
        is affected by the notice of the fact of the issue of the notice; and

   (b)  until the notice ceases to have effect, cause a copy of the notice to
        be displayed at or near each workplace at which the work that is the
        subject of the notice is being performed.

(13) The notice ceases to have effect if:

   (a)  it is cancelled by an investigator or by the health and safety
        representative; or

   (b)  the responsible person:

        (i)    takes such action, if any, as is specified in the notice; or

        (ii)   if no action is so specified - takes the action necessary to
               prevent the further contravention, or likely contravention,
               with which the notice is concerned.

(14) The responsible person:

   (a)  must ensure that, to the extent that the notice relates to any matter
        over which the person has control, the notice is complied with; and

   (b)  must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to inform the
        health and safety representative who issued the notice of the action
        taken to comply with the notice.

(15) For the purposes of section 48, where the investigator confirms or varies
the notice, the investigator is to be taken to have decided, under section 47,
to issue an improvement notice in those terms.