Work Health and Safety
Ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for all
Union members are driving the fight for stronger workplace safety laws, ensuring every worker has access to safe working conditions and fair health and safety protections. This section highlights how collective action is pushing for better work health and safety (WHS) standards, stronger workers’ rights, and employer accountability in creating safer workplaces.
Protecting workers from unsafe conditions
Every worker deserves to feel safe on the job. Unions are leading efforts to prevent workplace injuries, enforce occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations, and eliminate risks such as exposure to hazardous materials and unsafe work environments. Campaigns focus on improving mental health support at work, strengthening safety training, and ensuring that workers are not put at unnecessary risk.
Join the movement for workplace safety
By becoming a union member, you gain the power to demand better workplace protections, fight for fair compensation for workplace injuries, and hold employers accountable for maintaining safe working environments. Together, union members are making real progress in creating workplaces where safety is a right, not a privilege.
Read our articles for more information about Health and Safety at Work!
How safe is your workplace, really?
September 18, 2025
Work Shouldn’t Hurt (WSH) is a national survey on workers’ experiences with health and safety – and we want to hear from you.
Asbestos Awareness Week: an enduring and deadly legacy
November 27, 2024
Asbestos use has a deadly legacy in Australia. But it’s not just in our past: still today, more than 4,000 Australians die from asbestos-related disease every year.
Showing up to work shouldn’t mean putting your life at risk
April 28, 2024
Today, on International Workers’ Memorial Day, we honour workers who have lost their lives at work, and recommit ourselves to making workplaces safe for all workers.
Workplace mental health in the spotlight
March 6, 2024
Safe Work Australia has just released its Psychological health and safety in the workplace report, which identifies a worrying trend – with work-related mental health issues rising by 36.9% since 2018.
Casualties of a broken system
January 22, 2024
Less than 5% of casual workers who want permanent jobs can secure one. The second part of the Closing Loopholes Bill includes much-needed changes that will re-balance the relationship between casual workers and employers.
Half of workers are working while sick or injured
November 30, 2023
The results are in from Work Shouldn’t Hurt 2023: a national survey on workers’ experiences of health and safety.
Safe Work Australia report calls for complete ban on engineered stone
November 2, 2023
Safe Work Australia calls unequivocally for the ‘Prohibition on the use of all engineered stone’ in their landmark report, released publicly last Friday.
Unions vote to ban engineered stone
October 24, 2023
Today the union movement has voted to take all necessary action to ban engineered stone by the middle of next year. This is something every unionist needs to get behind, because the right to a safe workplace is fundamental, no matter what your job is.
Let’s get it done: close the loopholes to improve pay and conditions for workers
September 5, 2023
New laws, designed to make workplaces fairer and safer for workers, have been introduced by the Albanese Government in Parliament this week.
Australia a world leader in protecting workers from violence and harassment
June 19, 2023
All working people deserve to work in a safe environment, free from violence and harassment.