The short version
- You must identify and manage the risks of any work done alone or in isolation, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- WHS Regulation 48 specifically requires a system of work for remote or isolated workers that includes effective communication with the worker.
- A documented risk assessment is the accepted evidence that you have done this.
- Officers (directors and executives) have a personal due-diligence duty - this is not delegable to the safety team.
- Serious incidents involving lone workers are notifiable to your WHS regulator, with short deadlines.
What the law says
Section 19 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 places the primary duty of care on the PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking): ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers. The duty follows the work, not the workplace - a support worker in a client's home or a driver between sites is covered exactly as an office worker is.
Regulation 48 of the model WHS Regulations deals directly with remote or isolated work. It requires the PCBU to manage the associated risks, and in minimising those risks to provide a system of work that includes effective communication with the worker. "Remote or isolated work" is defined as work isolated from the assistance of other persons because of location, time or the nature of the work - which captures night-shift staff and solo home visitors, not just outback crews.
The model laws apply in every Australian jurisdiction except Victoria, where the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 imposes equivalent duties through its general duty provisions and WorkSafe Victoria guidance on working alone.
What it means in practice
- Identify every role that involves working alone at any point - including opening and closing, travel between jobs, and after-hours work.
- Complete and document a risk assessment per role. Our free lone worker risk assessment template covers the five steps.
- Provide a communication system matched to the risk: scheduled check-ins at minimum, monitored duress alarms or safety apps where the assessment finds aggression, remoteness or medical risk.
- Write the arrangements down as a policy and procedure, train workers on them, and keep records of the training.
- Test the response: a communication system that no one answers at 2am does not satisfy the regulation.
- Review after every incident, near miss or change to the work.
Who is personally on the hook
Section 27 of the WHS Act gives officers - directors and senior executives - a personal duty of due diligence: take reasonable steps to understand the risks of the business and ensure resources and processes exist to manage them. A director who has never asked how the organisation's lone workers would raise an alarm has a due-diligence gap, not a paperwork gap.
Breaches carry criminal penalties. Most Australian jurisdictions have now enacted industrial manslaughter offences for the most serious failures, with penalties including imprisonment for individuals.
When something goes wrong
Deaths, serious injuries or illnesses, and dangerous incidents are notifiable to your state WHS regulator immediately after you become aware of them, and the site may need to be preserved. The categories are defined in Part 3 of the WHS Act. Our incident report form template includes the notifiable-incident check so the question gets asked on the day, not at the inquest.