High Risk Work Licences in Construction: What Australian Operators Must Know

Construction is Australia's most dangerous industry by workplace fatality count. To manage the risks of high-hazard activities — working with cranes, scaffolding, pressure equipment, and explosives — the Work Health and Safety Regulations require workers performing these activities to hold a current High Risk Work (HRW) licence.

As a construction business operator, you have a direct legal obligation to ensure your workers hold the required licences before they perform licensed work. Engaging unlicensed workers — even if they are otherwise competent — is a serious WHS offence.

What Is High Risk Work?

High risk work is defined in Schedule 3 of the Work Health and Safety Regulations as work involving high potential for injury or death that requires specific training and assessment. It includes activities in the following categories:

Rigging

• Basic Rigging (RB): Lifting equipment, hoisting and lowering plant
• Intermediate Rigging (RI): Basic rigging activities plus suspended scaffolding, gin wheels, and static lines
• Advanced Rigging (RA): The full range of rigging including complex gin wheels and high angle rescue

Scaffolding

• Basic Scaffolding (SB): Erecting and dismantling tube and coupler scaffolding, modular scaffolding, and prefabricated scaffolding up to a specified height
• Intermediate Scaffolding (SI): Cantilevered scaffolding and scaffolding on bridge structures
• Advanced Scaffolding (SA): The full range of scaffolding including suspended scaffolding

Crane and Hoist Operation

Multiple licence classes covering:

• Tower crane (CT)
• Self-erecting tower crane (C6)
• Derrick crane (CD)
• Bridge and gantry crane (CB)
• Vehicle loading crane (CV) (for cranes above a specified capacity)
• Non-slewing mobile crane (C2)
• Slewing mobile crane up to 20 tonnes (C6)
• Slewing mobile crane up to 60 tonnes (C4)
• Slewing mobile crane up to 100 tonnes (C2)
• Slewing mobile crane over 100 tonnes (C1)

Forklift Operation

• Forklift truck (LF)

Note: Forklift licences are required in all industries, not just construction.

Pressure Equipment Operation

Multiple classes covering boiler operation, turbine operation, and pressure vessel operation.

Explosive Powertool Use

• Use of explosive power tools (EP)

Abrasive Blasting

• Abrasive blasting (AB)

Who Regulates High Risk Work Licences?

High risk work licences are issued by state and territory WHS regulators:

• NSW: SafeWork NSW
• Victoria: WorkSafe Victoria
• Queensland: Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
• SA: SafeWork SA
• WA: WorkSafe WA
• Tasmania: WorkSafe Tasmania
• NT: NT WorkSafe
• ACT: WorkSafe ACT

Licences issued in one state are generally recognised across all states and territories under mutual recognition arrangements — but confirm this before assuming a licence issued interstate is valid in your state.

How Workers Obtain High Risk Work Licences

To obtain an HRW licence, a worker must:

1. Complete training with a registered training organisation (RTO) that delivers the relevant unit of competency
2. Pass an assessment — theoretical and practical components
3. Apply to the state WHS regulator for the licence, providing the Statement of Attainment from the RTO
4. Pay the licence fee

The RTO prepares the worker and provides the assessment; the state regulator issues the licence. Most licence classes require practical hands-on training and a workplace-based assessment.

Employer Obligations

You Must Verify Current Licences

Before allowing a worker to perform high risk work, you must verify that they hold a current licence for that class of work. This means:

• Asking to see the licence card
• Checking the licence class matches the work to be performed
• Checking the expiry date
• Checking that there are no conditions on the licence that prevent the proposed work

You should maintain records of all HRW licences held by your workers. Keep a copy of each licence and record the expiry date.

Licences Must Match the Work

Each HRW licence class authorises specific work. A worker with a Basic Scaffolding (SB) licence cannot perform Intermediate Scaffolding work. A crane operator with a non-slewing mobile crane licence cannot operate a slewing mobile crane.

Matching licence class to work performed is your responsibility as the PCBU. If a worker performs work above the class of their licence, both the worker and you as the operator are in breach.

Licence Renewal

HRW licences are typically issued for a period of 5 years and must be renewed before expiry. A worker who allows their licence to lapse — and continues to perform licensed work — and their employer — are both in breach.

Many small construction businesses lose track of workers' licence expiry dates. Implement a system to track and alert you when licences are approaching expiry.

Supervision of Licensed Work

Even where a worker holds the required licence, the employer's general WHS duty requires that licensed work is performed safely. A licence establishes minimum competency — it does not substitute for adequate supervision, safe work systems, and appropriate equipment.

Penalties for Engaging Unlicensed Workers

Allowing a worker to perform high risk work without a current licence is a serious WHS offence:

• For a person conducting a business or undertaking: penalty up to $50,000 (Category 3 offence)
• In some jurisdictions, higher penalties apply for Category 2 offences where the unlicensed work contributed to injury

Individual workers who perform licensed work without a current licence also commit an offence.

The WHS regulator may prosecute both the worker and the operator. In practice, operators who should have verified licences before allowing work to commence are more likely to face prosecution than workers who misrepresented their status.

Practical Compliance Steps

1. Audit your current workforce — identify every worker performing high risk work and verify their licence class and expiry date
2. Create a licence register — record every HRW licence, the class, the issuing state, and the expiry date
3. Set expiry reminders — alert for each licence at 90 days, 30 days, and 7 days before expiry
4. Verify before engagement — for contractors, verify their HRW licences before they commence work on site
5. Keep copies — retain a copy of each licence in your records
6. Check mutual recognition — if a worker's licence was issued in another state, confirm it is recognised in your state

The Role of Inductions in HRW Sites

Even where workers hold HRW licences, your site induction must cover the specific requirements and procedures for licensed work on your site — including the location of required equipment, site-specific hazards, and emergency procedures.

A general HRW licence does not exempt a worker from site-specific induction and supervision.

How Reguladar Helps

Tracking HRW licences across your workforce — including expiry dates and licence class verification — is an ongoing compliance obligation with significant consequences if missed. Reguladar surfaces your WHS licensing obligations in your personalised compliance dashboard, tracking expiry dates and alerting you before workers' licences expire.

Stay on top of your construction WHS obligations. Start your free compliance check at Reguladar and get your complete WHS compliance profile today.