WorkSafe Victoria & OHS: A Practical Onboarding Checklist for Hosts
Hosts and labour-hire providers share OHS duties under the Victorian OHS Act. Use this checklist to confirm induction, PPE, hazard briefings and ticket verification.
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), the host is the person with management or control of the workplace - and they hold the same duty of care to a labour-hire worker as to any direct employee. WorkSafe Victoria has been clear that 'we thought the agency handled it' is not a defence.
The shared-duty model
Where a labour-hire provider sources a worker and the host directs the work, both organisations owe a duty under the Act. In practical terms the provider verifies tickets and right-to-work; the host inducts the worker to the specific site, equipment and hazards. The handover between these two duties is where most onboarding failures occur.
Onboarding checklist for hosts
- Confirm the worker has completed the provider's onboarding (RELAY issues a site-ready file with photo ID, tickets, VEVO and contact-of-record).
- Run a site-specific induction covering emergency procedures, first aid, traffic management and reporting lines.
- Demonstrate and confirm competence on any plant, mobile equipment or hazardous task before unsupervised work begins.
- Issue PPE matched to the role (eye, hearing, hi-vis, footwear) and document fit-out.
- Brief the worker on the host's incident reporting and consultation procedure - including how to raise a concern.
Ticket and licence verification
High-risk work licences (forklift LF, scissor lift WP, EWP and others) must be sighted in original form and verified against the worker's photo ID. RELAY captures the licence number, class and expiry in our roster system and re-checks before every renewal cycle, but hosts should still sight the physical credential on first attendance.
Documentation that stands up
When WorkSafe inspect after an incident, the documents they want to see are the induction record, the JSA or SWMS the worker was briefed on, the equipment competency record and the supervision plan. Keep them together in one folder per worker placement - and a digital copy with the provider.
