What is a critical risk?

A critical risk is one that is likely to lead to:

• death
• a notifiable injury
• a notifiable illness
• a notifiable incident
• a notifiable occupational disease¹
  or
• is managed by regulations under HSWA.²

Notifiable injury or notifiable illness

This generally means an injury or illness that requires (or would usually require) a person to be admitted to hospital for immediate treatment.

For more information see What events need to be notified?

Notifiable incident

A notifiable incident is an unplanned or uncontrolled work-related incident that exposes the health and safety of workers or others to a serious risk.

For more information see What events need to be notified?

Occupational disease

An occupational disease is one that has been identified by ACC and placed into a list of diseases caused from work related exposure.

Examples of occupational diseases in ACC’s list include:

• occupational asthma
• respiratory diseases caused by dusts or fumes
• some cancers linked to workplace exposures such as exposure to asbestos
• occupational skin diseases.

For more information see Hazards that can cause occupational diseases (guidance to be released soon)

See Schedule 2 Accident Compensation Act 2001(external link) for the full list.

How to identify critical risks

Use this process to identify the hazards that are likely to do the most harm in your workplace.

Step 1: Identify hazards in your work

Look for anything (such as tasks or activities, equipment, and behaviours) that could cause harm.

• Walk around the workplace.
• Look at past incidents and near misses.
• Consider what are known risks for your industry.
• Think about everyday work, maintenance, and emergencies.
• Talk to your workers, to get their thoughts. You are required to do this under your worker engagement and participation duties. See Worker engagement, participation and representation for more information.

Step 2: Check if the hazard is covered by regulations

Detailed list of hazards covered by regulations

If the hazard you have identified has regulations that apply to it, the associated risk is automatically a critical risk, and you must manage that risk.

Examples include risks from:

• hazardous substances
• asbestos
• certain machinery or plant
• working at heights
• other high-harm work managed by regulations.³

Step 3: For hazards not covered by regulations, consider the harm they could cause

For each hazard, consider the harm they could cause by asking the following questions:

• If there were no control measures in place, what could go wrong and what is the risk it creates?
• If things do go wrong, is it likely to result in death, a notifiable injury, a notifiable illness, a notifiable incident, or a specified occupational disease?

Focus on the worst, but realistically possible, outcomes, not just what usually happens. When you are thinking about this you must take into account what you know or ought reasonably to know about:

• your work and how it is done
• the hazard and the risk
• what harm is likely to happen.

The following chart walks you through keys questions to ask when deciding if a risk is critical or not. Use this to check each hazard you have identified when working out your critical risks:

Examples of common critical risks

These are examples of work activities where risks may arise that are not covered by regulations but could be classed as critical.

• A farm worker handling cattle (being trampled).
• A worker at a late night convenience store that sells alcohol and tobacco exposed to robbery or violence (physical assault)
• A warehouse worker working around forklifts and moving loads (pedestrian/forklift collision).
• A road worker operating on the roadside (being hit by a vehicle).

Remember that over time and as circumstances change, some risks may become critical and others may no longer be critical. You should regularly assess your risks for changes that may alter their status.

Are psychosocial and musculoskeletal risks critical risks?

Critical risks can include psychosocial hazards, sometimes through flow-on effects.

Work that is stressful or tiring may create a risk of harm to workers’ mental health (for example truck drivers working long hours in poor driving conditions may experience high levels of stress and fatigue). If that harm occurs and it is assessed as likely to lead to one of the serious physical harms in the serious harm test (such as a vehicle crash), it would be a critical risk and must be managed.

Musculoskeletal injuries can vary in severity and can result from many circumstances. For instance, if the business has a hazard likely to result in a back injury that needs immediate admission to hospital (a notifiable injury, such as a spinal injury), this is a critical risk.

However, cumulative harms such as an overuse injury are not automatically captured unless assessed as likely to lead to one of the factors under the serious harm test.

Examples comparing critical and non-critical risks

Example 1: Retail or hospitality

Using a deep fryer (café or takeaway shop)

• What could go wrong? Hot oil splashes or fire
• Likely outcome: severe burns
• This is a critical risk

Handling of cleaning chemicals

• Covered by regulations (hazardous substances)
• Automatically a critical risk

Unpacking stock

• What could go wrong? Minor cut while opening boxes
• Likely outcome: minor injury
• Not a critical risk

Example 2: Factory worker

Using machinery with many moving parts

• What could go wrong? Getting a limb trapped or amputated or being crushed by machinery
• Likely outcome: serious physical harm/death
• This is a critical risk

Breakroom left untidy and cluttered with boxes

• What could go wrong? Tripping over boxes, banged knee
• Likely outcome: minor injury
• Not a critical risk

What this means for your business

Small PCBUs

If you are a small PCBU you must:

• identify your critical risks
• manage these risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

You can manage other risks if you want to, or as part of a contractual arrangement with another business.

For more information on managing risk see How to manage work risks

Some enforcement powers under HSWA are also limited to critical risks for small PCBUs:

• A health and safety representative (HSR) may only issue a provisional improvement notice to a small PCBU if the issue relates to a critical risk or the provision of welfare facilities.
• A WorkSafe inspector can only issue an improvement notice to a small PCBU if the issue relates to a critical risk or the provision of welfare facilities.

Large PCBUs

If you are a large PCBU you must:

• identify your critical risks
• prioritise your critical risks
• manage all risks.

Critical risks should get the most attention and oversight. For more information on what prioritising means, see Prioritising critical risks for large PCBUs

See WorkSafe’s guidance Identifying, assessing and managing work risks for information on how to identify and manage risks.

There are some things all PCBUs have to do

Worker welfare duties apply in all workplaces because these duties are about basic working conditions, not risk levels.

So far as is reasonably practicable, you must still ensure that adequate facilities are provided for workers at your workplace including:

• toilets
• drinking water
• hand washing facilities
• first aid
• emergency planning.

For more information see General risk and workplace management – part 1

Critical risks managed by regulations

The following types of work and hazards are identified as critical risks.

Footnotes

¹ As listed under Schedule 2 Accident Compensation Act 2001(external link)

² As listed under Schedule 1A HSWA(external link)

³ As listed under Schedule 1A HSWA(external link)