Category 3 WHS offence
A Category 3 WHS offence is failure to comply with a safety duty where no person was exposed to death or serious injury. The lowest of three tiers under s 33.
Ask Chalkline about this →A Category 3 offence is the lowest of three tiers of work-health-and-safety offence under the model Work Health and Safety Act (section 33). It applies where a person (PCBU, officer, worker) has failed to comply with a health and safety duty, but no person was actually exposed to a risk of death or serious injury at the time of the breach. Categories 1 and 2 require an exposure or risk of exposure; Category 3 catches the duty-breach itself.
The three tiers, in plain English:
- Category 1 (s 31): reckless conduct that exposed an individual to a risk of death or serious injury. The most serious; includes prison terms.
- Category 2 (s 32): failure to comply with a duty that exposed an individual to a risk of death or serious injury. Mid-tier.
- Category 3 (s 33): failure to comply with a duty. No exposure required. The lowest tier.
The escalation depends on what happened (or could have happened), not on the technical content of the breach. The same paperwork failure can be Category 3 (no one was on site), Category 2 (workers were on site exposed), or Category 1 (someone was injured because of it).
Common Category 3 scenarios for builders: missing SWMS for an HRCW task not yet started; outdated PCBU notifications; missing safety induction records; failure to consult on a control change; absent mandatory training documents.
Penalties. Maximum monetary penalties under the model WHS Act for Category 3 are scaled by offender type: body corporate / PCBU (hundreds of thousands), officer (roughly one-fifth of the body-corporate maximum), individual (roughly one-tenth). Figures index annually from 1 July, and some states (NSW notably) have elevated above the model. Consult the Safe Work Australia maximum monetary penalties page for current values. No imprisonment under Category 3, unlike Category 1.
For builders. Category 3 is the tier most likely to bite a small builder for paperwork lapses when no one has been hurt. Keep current SWMS, training records, and PCBU notifications and most Category 3 risk falls away.
Also known as: s 33 offence, WHS Category 3, lowest-tier WHS offence.
Category: WHS / enforcement / offences.
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Last updated: 2026-05-14. Verified: 2026-05-14.