Lone workers on Australian residential builds

What it is

A lone worker is a person who carries out work alone, in isolation from other workers, where the time taken for assistance to arrive in an emergency is significant. On a residential build that captures the plumber doing a Saturday morning fit-off, the tiler finishing wet areas after hours, the carpenter sent to a single-trade repair job at an occupied home, the painter staying late to cut in a ceiling and the supervisor doing a final walk through after the trades have left.

The model WHS Regulations call this remote or isolated work and treat it as a specific risk that the PCBU must control. The duty applies under regulation 48 of the model WHS Regulations and the equivalent state provisions. The model Code of Practice for Construction Work and the SafeWork NSW guidance on remote and isolated work give the practical detail.

Why residential lone work is different

Commercial sites have a defined sign-in and sign-out, a security guard or a site office that notices when someone has not come back. Residential lone work is the opposite. The worker is often the only person on a private lot, the front gate may be unlocked, the neighbours may not be home and a sprained ankle or a fall from a step ladder can leave the worker on the ground for hours before anyone notices. The risk is the gap between the incident and the response, not the incident itself.

The PCBU duty under regulation 48

The PCBU that engages the worker must manage risks to the worker associated with remote or isolated work. That means a documented system, not a verbal arrangement. The control measures listed in the model regulation cover communication systems, the nature of the work, the skills of the worker, the location, the duration and the response arrangements if something goes wrong.

Communication system

The worker must be able to contact help reliably. On a suburban site that usually means a mobile phone with a known reception status and a backup if the phone is lost or damaged. On rural builds the worker may need a satellite communicator or a UHF radio. A duress button or a man-down alarm app is appropriate where the work involves higher risk, such as working at height or in a confined space alone.

Check-in protocol

The most common control is a scheduled check-in. The worker calls or messages the office or a nominated person at the start of work, at agreed intervals and at the end of the day. The protocol must define what happens if a check-in is missed. A check-in policy that has no escalation is paperwork only. The escalation should reach the worker first, then a known emergency contact, then 000 if the worker cannot be reached.

Skills and training

A lone worker must be competent for the work without on-site supervision. That includes the trade skill, the SWMS for the task, first aid training appropriate to the risk and induction to the specific site. New workers, apprentices and casual labour should not be sent to do lone work on residential lots until they meet the competency threshold.

TradeLens compliance: who carries the duty

Lone worker arrangements expose every layer of the WHS chain.

Principal contractor and head builder

If the project is still active with a principal contractor in place the PC has a duty to ensure the WHS Management Plan covers lone work, including check-in arrangements and emergency response. On a finished home where a single trade returns for a defect rectification the PC role may have ended and the builder commissioning the work picks up the lead PCBU duty.

The subcontracting PCBU

The trade business that sends the worker out is a PCBU and holds the primary duty for the worker. Solo operators are PCBUs too. A self-employed plumber who locks themselves out of a customer site at 7 pm still has a duty to themselves under section 28 of the model WHS Act and to anyone else exposed to the risk.

Worker

The worker has a duty to follow the agreed check-in protocol, use the equipment provided and stop work if the agreed controls fail.

Insurance and duty of care

Workers compensation coverage applies during the journey to and from work and during the work itself. A lone worker injured at a residential lot is usually covered, but claims are often complicated by the time gap between the incident and the report. Public liability and contract works insurance may also be triggered if a member of the public is exposed, for example an unsupervised worker who leaves a trench open during a late finish.

Builders should check whether their insurance policy has specific exclusions for unsupervised after-hours work. Some policies require notification of work outside standard hours. A short call to the broker before sending a worker out alone closes most of the gap.

Audit triggers SafeWork inspectors look for

Inspectors find the same gaps on residential lone worker audits. A risk register that does not name lone work as a hazard. A check-in protocol that exists on paper but is not run in practice. No documented escalation if a worker fails to check in. Apprentices sent to do lone work without sign-off. No record of the location of the worker on a given day. After-hours work happening with no notification to a supervisor.

A residential builder can close most of the audit risk with a written lone worker procedure, a scheduled SMS or app check-in for any worker sent out alone, a known escalation chain and a record kept for the statutory period. The cost is low. The cost of not having it surfaces only when a worker is found injured the next morning.