HSRs: An Important Resource for WHS Due Diligence

A Health and Safety Representative (HSR) is sometimes viewed primarily as the person who represents workers when something goes wrong. That is an unnecessarily narrow view of the role. For directors and other officers of a business, an effective HSR can be a valuable WHS resource—helping management understand what is actually happening where work is being performed.

Under section 27 of the NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011, officers have a personal duty to exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its WHS duties. Due diligence includes keeping up-to-date knowledge of WHS matters, understanding the hazards and risks associated with the business, ensuring appropriate resources and processes are available and used, and verifying that those processes are being followed.

This is where the HSR can become particularly valuable.

HSRs are elected to represent workers and have legislated functions that include monitoring measures taken by the business to comply with the WHS Act, investigating WHS complaints and inquiring into anything that appears to be a risk to workers. They can also inspect the workplace and receive relevant information concerning hazards and the health and safety of workers in their work group.

In practical terms, an HSR can provide management with something that is difficult to obtain from a boardroom or management report: an informed view of what is happening on the ground.

Are procedures actually being followed? Are workers encountering hazards that management has not identified? Are controls working in practice? Are workers raising recurring concerns? Have workplace changes introduced new risks?

These are precisely the types of questions that can assist an officer in demonstrating that WHS due diligence is more than simply having policies sitting in a filing system.

The HSR does not assume the officer's legal responsibility. Nor does the HSR become responsible for ensuring the business complies with the WHS Act. In fact, the Act expressly provides that it does not impose a duty on an HSR in that capacity.

Rather, the HSR provides another valuable source of information, worker feedback and workplace intelligence.

The WHS Regulation 2025 continues to support this representative role, including providing HSRs with an entitlement to approved initial five-day training and annual refresher training.

For directors and officers, therefore, the question should not simply be "Do we have HSRs?" It should be "Are we making effective use of our HSRs as part of our WHS assurance and due diligence processes?"

That approach can benefit both workers and the business—and help turn worker representation into a practical component of effective WHS governance.

It is the overarching duty of every organisation to provide a WHS management system that ensures the safety and wellbeing of its workers. If you require support in improving or strengthening your WHS management system, Courtenell can assist through tailored training, consulting services, and management system review. Please contact one of our Training Consultants on 02 9552 2066 or email train@courtenell.com.au