Worker
Under the model WHS Act (s7), a "worker" is anyone who carries out work in any capacity for a PCBU — employees, contractors and their workers, labour-hire staff, apprentices, trainees, work-experience students, volunteers and the PCBU itself if it is an individual doing work. The definition is deliberately broad.
Legal context
The expanded "worker" definition is what makes the model WHS Act significantly more demanding than the old OHS regimes it replaced. A PCBU owes the s19 primary duty to every "worker" — not just direct employees. This captures the long supply chain of modern work: a labour-hire driver, an independent contractor electrician, a software contractor working from home, a volunteer events steward, an apprentice on placement. The PCBU's consultation, training, and risk-management duties extend to all of them. Where multiple PCBUs have duties for the same worker (e.g. the host employer and the labour-hire firm), each duty applies in parallel and the PCBUs must coordinate under s46.
Regulator references
The binding-law and regulator-guidance sources behind this term.
Common questions
Are volunteers "workers" under WHS?
Yes — for the purposes of the primary duty owed to them. The "worker" definition explicitly includes volunteers. However, volunteers themselves do not owe the s28 worker duties unless they are paid or otherwise within scope.
Where this shows up in RAE IQ
Related terms
PCBU
PCBU stands for Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking — the primary duty-holder under model WHS legislation in Australia. It is broader than “employer”: a PCBU can be a company, a sole trader, a partnership or an unincorporated association, and the duty applies whether or not workers are paid.
Workplace
A "workplace" under the model WHS Act (s8) is any place where work is carried out for a business or undertaking. This includes vehicles, vessels, aircraft, and any place workers go or are likely to be in the course of work — not just a fixed site.
Primary duty of care
The primary duty of care (model WHS Act s19) is a PCBU's overarching duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other persons at the workplace. It is the foundation duty from which most other WHS obligations flow.
Induction
An induction is the structured introduction of a worker (or contractor) to a workplace before they start work: site rules, emergency procedures, hazards, PPE, supervisory chain, sign-on. Induction is a precondition for being allowed to work on most managed sites.
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47 WHS and HSWA terms with legal context, FAQs and regulator references.