Principal contractor responsibilities

I am the principal contractor of a building site and have identified a subcontractor performing high risk silica work. Is it on me as the principal contractor to ensure the subcontractor is completing health monitoring of their workers involved in high risk silica work on my site? If yes, how would I go about achieving this?

The principal contractor is responsible for providing health monitoring to workers they directly employ. Subcontractors have a responsibility to their workers, as the employer, to conduct health monitoring if they undertake ongoing high risk silica processing work that poses a significant risk to worker health.

In the case of labour hire workers, the host and labour hire company must consult on who will organise and pay for the health monitoring.

Find guidance on health monitoring and health and safety duties for employers

Determining high risk silica work

When determining if an activity is high risk silica work, can you consider engineering, isolation and substitution controls?

When completing a risk assessment to determine if a silica processing activity is high risk, the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) may consider the controls outlined under clause 529B of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017, including engineering and isolation controls.

However, the PCBU must not solely rely on these controls as the processing activity may still be considered high risk even with these controls in place.

When identifying whether a process is high risk, the PCBU must take into consideration all the factors outlined under clause 529CA of the Regulation. This can include the frequency and duration of the task, percentage of silica present in the material and type of processing.

If you are unable to assess whether the processing is high risk, you must assume it is high risk until you can determine otherwise through further assessment.

Refer to section 4.2 of Safe Work Australia’s Working with crystalline silica substances: Guidance for PCBUs.

_{All Q&As provided by SafeWork NSW}