Work Health and Safety Obligations
Core concepts
Understand the duties of a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), officers, and workers under work health and safety law. Know the hierarchy of risk control: eliminate, substitute, isolate, engineer, administer, and use personal protective equipment. Understand safe isolation and lock-out/tag-out procedures, proving dead, and the use of test-before-touch. Know the requirements for working at heights, in confined spaces, and near live parts, and the need for a safety observer where required.
Traps in questions
Questions often test whether a worker can refuse unsafe work, and who is responsible for providing PPE. Candidates confuse the hierarchy of control with a list of hazards, and forget that PPE is the last resort. Another trap is whether testing for dead must be done with a proven tester and whether the tester must be proven before and after. Be careful with the difference between a hazard and a risk.
Worked example
Before working on a switchboard, identify the circuits, isolate the supply, lock and tag the isolator, and prove the tester on a known live source. Test the conductors to confirm dead, then prove the tester again. Only then proceed. If the tester cannot be proven, stop work and report the fault.
Rule of thumb
Never assume a circuit is dead. Prove the tester, test for dead, and prove the tester again.