OHS Act (Victoria)
OHS Act 2004 is Victoria's pre-harmonisation workplace safety law. VIC didn't adopt the Model WHS Act; uses employer (not PCBU) and different section numbers.
Ask Chalkline about this →The OHS Act (Vic) is the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, Victoria’s pre-harmonisation workplace safety law. Victoria did not adopt the Model WHS Act and continues under its own framework. The duty concepts are broadly equivalent across the two regimes, but section numbers, terminology, and some duties differ: a SWMS or WHS document tuned for NSW Model-Act compliance is not automatically OHS Act compliant. The deeper article is compliance/ohs-act-2004-vic.
Key differences from the Model Act
| Model WHS Act (NSW, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT, ACT) | OHS Act 2004 (Vic) | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary duty-holder | PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) | Employer (and self-employed) |
| Officer duty | s 27 due-diligence | s 144 (officers liable for body-corporate offences) |
| Worker duty | ”Worker” (broad) | “Employee” + “independent contractor” treated separately |
| Notifiable incidents | ss 35-38 | ss 37-39 |
| Manslaughter offence | ”Industrial manslaughter” (varies by state) | “Workplace manslaughter” (s 39G, since 2020) |
| Regulator | State WHS regulator | WorkSafe Victoria |
Same in substance
- Reasonably practicable is the duty standard in both regimes.
- Hierarchy of controls for managing risks applies under both.
- Notifiable incidents (death, serious injury, dangerous incident) reportable to the regulator immediately under both.
- Construction-specific duties (SWMS for high-risk construction work, induction, principal-contractor coordination) sit in the Vic OHS Regulations 2017 with broad parity to the Model Regulations.
Category: WHS / legislation.
Related
See also
Last updated: 2026-05-29. Verified: 2026-05-29. Quarterly review for currency.