We are often asked whether a scheme (falling under the definition of bodies corporate – meaning it could be strata scheme, body corporate, community, neighbourhood, etc), has Work, Health and Safety Obligations.
In essence – no, not unless it is a commercial scheme or employing people directly (and thus falling under the definition of Person Conducting Business or Undertaking).
This is the section of the WHS Act with reference to bodies corporate being an exception (provided they don’t have employees).
https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/legal-obligations/strata-title-and-body-corporate
Meaning of “person conducting a business or undertaking”—persons excluded
(1) For the purposes of section 5 (6) of the Act, a strata title body corporate that is responsible for any common areas used only for residential purposes may be taken not to be a person conducting a business or undertaking in relation to those premises.
(2) Subclause (1) does not apply if the strata title body corporate engages any worker as an employee.
(3) For the purposes of section 5 (6) of the Act, an incorporated association may be taken not to be a person conducting a business or undertaking if the incorporated association consists of a group of volunteers working together for 1 or more community purposes where:
(a) the incorporated association, either alone or jointly with any other similar incorporated association, does not employ any person to carry out work for the incorporated association, and
(b) none of the volunteers, whether alone or jointly with any other volunteers, employs any person to carry out work for the incorporated association.
(4) In this clause, strata title body corporate means an owners corporation constituted under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015.
Relevant articles are below on safety/WHS
https://www.makdap.com.au/publications/do-new-whs-laws-affect-your-strata
