WHS Obligations for Trade Businesses: What Every Tradie Needs to Know

Whether you're an electrician, plumber, concreter, or refrigeration mechanic, running your own trade business makes you a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) under Australia's WHS framework. That comes with real obligations — to your employees, your apprentices, and to yourself if you work alone. For a full overview, see our trades compliance checklist.

Many sole trader tradies and small trade business owners assume WHS compliance is primarily a large-business concern. It's not. The WHS Act applies to every business, regardless of size — and fines for non-compliance range from improvement notices through to prosecutions with penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Your Core WHS Duty as a Tradie

As a PCBU, your primary duty is to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of:

• Workers engaged by your business (employees, apprentices, labour hire workers)
• Contractors and subcontractors working on your behalf
• Other people who may be put at risk by your work — including clients, members of the household at a job site, and members of the public

"So far as reasonably practicable" means you must do everything that can reasonably be done to eliminate or minimise risks — weighing up the likelihood of harm, the severity of harm, and the cost and practicability of controls.

Common Trade Hazards and Your Obligations

Every trade has its own hazard profile. Here are the key ones:

Electrical Work

• Electrical hazards — contact with live conductors, arc flash, induced voltages
• Working at heights — accessing roof spaces, meter boards, elevated cabling routes
• Confined spaces — roof cavities, crawl spaces, pits

Controls: Isolation and lockout/tagout procedures before working on electrical systems. Test before touching — always verify that circuits are de-energised before working on them. Fall protection for heights over 2m. Confined space risk assessment and entry procedures.

Plumbing and Gas Fitting

• Manual handling — heavy pipes, equipment, and tools
• Working in excavations — trenches for drainage and service installation
• Gas exposure — risk of gas leaks, fire, and explosion during gas fitting work
• Hot works — pipe soldering, welding

Controls: Manual handling risk assessments and mechanical assists for heavy lifting. Trenching controls (shoring, battering, or benching for trenches deeper than 1.5m). Gas leak testing procedures. Hot works permits if working in proximity to flammable materials.

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

• Refrigerant handling — exposure to refrigerant gases, asphyxiation risk in confined spaces
• Electrical hazards — working with electrical components
• Working at heights — rooftop units, ceiling installations
• Manual handling — heavy plant and equipment

Controls: Respiratory protection for refrigerant work. Confined space procedures where refrigerant work is in enclosed areas. Electrical isolation. Correct lifting techniques and equipment for heavy plant.

Carpentry and Joinery

• Powered tools — circular saws, routers, nail guns — laceration and amputation risks
• Wood dust — respiratory hazard, particularly for fine hardwood dust (carcinogen)
• Falls from height — framing, scaffolding, roof work

Controls: Machine guards on all power tools. Dust extraction or respiratory protection for sanding and machining. Edge protection and fall arrest for elevated work.

Tiling

• Silica dust — cutting ceramic, porcelain, or natural stone tiles generates respirable crystalline silica
• Manual handling — carrying heavy tile boxes, adhesive
• Knee injuries — prolonged kneeling

Controls: Wet cutting wherever practicable. Dust extraction for dry cutting. P2 respiratory protection as a minimum for silica-generating tasks. Knee pads and kneeling mats.

Painting

• Hazardous substances — solvents, isocyanates in two-pack paints, lead paint in older buildings
• Working at heights — ladders, scaffolding
• Airless spray — high-pressure injection risk

Controls: SDS review for all products used. Respiratory protection appropriate to the product (supplied air for isocyanates). Fall protection for elevated work. Lead paint risk assessment for pre-1970 buildings.

Safe Work Procedures

For the activities you perform regularly, you should have safe work procedures (SWPs) — documented step-by-step descriptions of how to do the work safely. Unlike SWMS (which are required specifically for high-risk construction work), SWPs are best-practice documentation for any potentially hazardous task.

Even if you're a sole trader, having written SWPs serves several purposes:

• Forces you to think through the hazards before you encounter them
• Provides training material for employees and apprentices
• Documents your due diligence

High-Risk Work Licences

If you or your workers perform high-risk work, you must hold the relevant high-risk work licence (HRWL). Common trade activities that require HRWLs include:

• Scaffolding (basic, intermediate, advanced)
• Rigging (basic, intermediate, advanced)
• Crane and hoist operation (various categories)
• Forklift operation
• Pressure equipment operation
• Explosive power tools (e.g., powder-actuated tools)

HRWLs are national — they're issued by any state WHS regulator and recognised across Australia.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE is the last line of defence in the hierarchy of controls — but it's also frequently used in trades because engineering controls aren't always practicable on a job site. Your obligations:

• Provide appropriate PPE for identified hazards at no cost to workers
• Ensure PPE is in good condition and properly fitted
• Train workers in correct PPE use
• Don't just provide PPE and hope workers use it — follow up

Common trade PPE includes: hard hats, safety boots, eye protection, hearing protection, respiratory protection, gloves, high-visibility clothing.

Record-Keeping

For a small trade business, WHS records should include:

• Safe work procedures for common tasks
• SWMS for high-risk construction work (if applicable)
• Incident reports for all injuries, illnesses, and near misses
• Training records — who has been inducted, what WHS training has been completed
• Plant maintenance records — servicing and inspection records for powered tools and equipment
• Chemical/SDS register — list of hazardous substances used, with current SDS for each

How Reguladar Helps

WHS obligations are just one part of a trade business's compliance picture — alongside licensing, employment, and tax. Reguladar gives trade business owners a single compliance dashboard tracking all their obligations in one place.

Start your free compliance check at Reguladar →