Notifiable incidents: when to call the WHS regulator

The duty applies to the person conducting the business or undertaking (PCBU). It covers anyone harmed, including workers, contractors, customers and visitors, if the incident arises from the conduct of your business. Section numbers below are those used in the model-based WHS Acts (Commonwealth, NSW, Queensland, SA, Tasmania, ACT, NT and WA).

• Immediate in-patient treatment in a hospital.
• Immediate treatment for an amputation, a serious head injury, a serious eye injury, a serious burn, degloving or scalping, a spinal injury, the loss of a bodily function, or serious lacerations.
• Medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.
• Any other injury or illness prescribed by the regulations, such as certain work-related infections.

Injuries needing only first aid are generally not notifiable. If you’re unsure, the regulators advise calling them. Our notifiable incident checker runs through the categories.

The listed events include an uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance; an uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire; an uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or a pressurised substance; electric shock; the fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing; the collapse or failure of plant that must be authorised, of a structure, or of an excavation or its shoring; and inrush or ventilation failures underground.

Seek urgent medical help first. If the situation is still dangerous, call 000 before contacting the regulator.

You can still assist an injured person, remove a deceased person, do what is essential to make the site safe or prevent a further incident, help a police investigation, or act with the regulator’s permission. The site includes any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the incident.

Our WHS record-keeping checker covers incident records alongside other WHS documents. In NSW, SafeWork NSW also reminds employers to record the injury in the register of injuries and to notify their workers compensation insurer within 48 hours.

• The written record within 48 hours is always required in Victoria, not only when the regulator asks.
• Section 37’s list of injuries needing immediate medical treatment includes electric shock but has no separate serious burn category.
• You don’t have to notify if you are self-employed or an employer and you are the only person injured or exposed.
• The maximum fine for failing to notify is 240 penalty units for a natural person and 1,200 penalty units for a body corporate.

In WA the maximum fine for failing to notify is $12,500 for an individual and $55,000 for a body corporate (s 38(1)). WorkSafe WA’s guidance treats an injury or illness in a remote location requiring urgent transfer to a medical facility as serious.

In the ACT, changes to the incident notification provisions of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 commenced on 19 November 2025. They clarify serious injuries (including fractures and serious head injuries) and dangerous incidents (including electrical, mobile plant and serious fall incidents), and extend site preservation to evidence such as digital records and witness details. WorkSafe ACT also requires workplace sexual assault incidents, including suspected ones, to be notified.

Under the amended model Act, a notifiable extended absence would have to be notified within 14 days. As at 5 November 2026, Safe Work Australia says employers should check with their own regulator before changing their notification systems, because each jurisdiction sets its own timeline.