Overlapping duties – quick guide

Businesses that work together will likely share health and safety duties in relation to the same matter. These are known as overlapping duties.

Overlapping duties – quick guide

PCBUs working together: Advice when contracting 

Health and safety obligations can overlap in a contracting chain, where contractors and subcontractors provide services to a lead contractor or client. These guidelines are for persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) who are sharing a workplace with other businesses, or are working as part of a contracting chain.

PCBUs working together: Advice when contracting

The work health and safety information needed before hiring contractors

Prequalification can be done in many ways and should be proportionate to the scale, complexity, and risk of the work you’re carrying out. While prequalification isn’t compulsory, WorkSafe expects businesses to know and understand how the contractors they hire will manage their health and safety risks on site.

Our position statement gives hiring businesses extra guidance on the information you should ask for, with a focus on overlapping duties.

The work health and safety information needed before hiring contractors – WorkSafe position

Prequalification template

WorkSafe’s prequalification template helps small businesses and sole traders think about, and bring together, examples of their health and safety practices.

If you’re a small business or sole trader, you can choose to use the template to record how you manage health and safety risks.