Training at work is a legal duty, not a courtesy. Under the model Work Health and Safety Act, the person conducting a business or undertaking is required to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the information, training, instruction and supervision needed to protect people from the risks of the work is provided, and the model Regulations add that it must suit the work and, so far as is reasonably practicable, be readily understandable.
General information, not legal advice. Each jurisdiction has its own Act and regulator; Victoria has not implemented the model laws.
Who holds the duty
The model laws place the primary duty on a person conducting a business or undertaking, shortened to PCBU. Safe Work Australia gives an employer as an example, and notes that one person can hold more than one duty at once: a self-employed person can be both a PCBU and a worker.
The duty runs to workers, and “worker” is wide. Besides employees, Safe Work Australia’s page lists:
“contractor”
“subcontractor”
“self-employed person”
“outworker”
“apprentice or trainee”
“work experience student”
“employee of a labour hire company placed with a ‘host employer’”
“volunteers.”
So the new apprentice, the student on placement and the labour hire worker on their first day all fall inside the duty.
The clause, line by line
Section 19 is the primary duty of care. Subsection (3) lists things a PCBU must ensure “so far as is reasonably practicable”, and item (f) is the one about training.
Model WHS Act, section 19(3)(f)
“the provision of any information, training, instruction or supervision that is necessary to protect all persons from risks to their health and safety arising from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking”
Reading the clause in four parts (the guide’s own reading)
Words
What they point to
“information, training, instruction or supervision”
Four separate things. Showing someone a task once is not the same as supervising them while they learn it, and the clause names both.
“that is necessary”
The test is need, set by the work and its risks, not a fixed course list.
“all persons”
Not only employees. Subsection (2) separately requires that other people are not put at risk by the work.
“so far as is reasonably practicable”
The standard set at the start of subsection (3), which applies to every item on the list.
Safe Work Australia’s current version of the model Act is dated 5 December 2025. Amendments to the model Act do not apply in a jurisdiction until that jurisdiction makes them, and Safe Work Australia publishes a cross-comparison table of each jurisdiction’s variations. Model WHS Act cross-comparison table.
What the Regulations add
Regulation 39 of the model WHS Regulations applies for the purposes of section 19 and sets two standards for the information, training and instruction a PCBU gives a worker.
Model WHS Regulations, regulation 39
Subregulation
The standard
39(2)
It must be “suitable and adequate” having regard to three things: “the nature of the work carried out by the worker”; “the nature of the risks associated with the work at the time the information, training or instruction is provided”; and “the control measures implemented”.
39(3)
So far as is reasonably practicable, it must be given “in a way that is readily understandable by any person to whom it is provided”.
Each subregulation carries a maximum penalty, given in the Regulations as a tier E monetary penalty. The middle factor, “at the time”, matters for refreshers: training that fitted the risks when it was given may stop fitting when the work, the equipment or the controls change. That is the guide’s reading of the words, not a rule stated in them.
The same Regulations hold more specific training duties for particular work. One example is the general construction induction, covered in row 02; another is first aid, in row 03.
The worker’s side of the sheet
Training runs both ways. Section 28 of the model Act says that, while at work, a worker must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, take reasonable care that what they do or fail to do does not harm others, comply as far as they reasonably can with any reasonable instruction the PCBU gives to allow it to comply with the Act, and “co-operate with any reasonable policy or procedure” about health or safety that has been notified to workers. Safe Work Australia adds that a worker can be prosecuted for failing to comply with their duties.
Officers
An officer, such as a business owner or chief executive, has a duty to exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its duties, and Safe Work Australia notes an officer can be prosecuted for failing to do so.
Victoria: the same subject, its own Act
Victoria has not implemented the model laws. Its Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 uses “employer” and “employee” rather than PCBU and worker. WorkSafe Victoria’s handbook summarises section 21 as a duty on employers to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable, and lists among the specific duties giving employees the information, instruction, training or supervision they need to work safely and without risks to their health.
Side by side
Point
Model WHS laws
Victoria
Who holds the duty
A person conducting a business or undertaking
An employer
The training words
Section 19(3)(f): information, training, instruction or supervision
Section 21: information, instruction, training or supervision
Language
Regulation 39(3): readily understandable
Section 22: health and safety information in suitable languages
Who else it covers
Workers, broadly defined, and other persons
The same duty to independent contractors and their employees, including labour hire workers, for matters the employer has or should have control over