Fitness for work means a worker can do their job safely, not impaired by fatigue, alcohol, other drugs, medication, illness, injury or stress. It is a workplace term, not a phrase in the Queensland WHS Act. The duties behind it come from sections 19 and 28 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld).
This guide is for owners and supervisors of small Queensland businesses.
What does “fitness for work” mean?
In plain words, a person is fit for work when they are well enough, alert enough and clear-headed enough to do the tasks in front of them without putting themselves or anyone else at risk. It depends on the task: a worker with a sore back may be fine to answer the phone but not to lift pallets. Common causes of a person not being fit are:
- fatigue, from long hours, poor sleep, shift work or travel;
- alcohol and other drugs;
- medication, including prescribed medication, where it affects alertness;
- illness or injury, including heat-related illness;
- stress and other psychological strain.
Does Queensland law use the words “fitness for work”?
Not in the Act or the Regulation. We searched the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) and the Queensland approved codes of practice in our library. The Act has no section on fitness for work, alcohol, drugs or fatigue. Apart from chemical names, the only mention of drugs or alcohol in the Regulation is an example in section 55F (harassment risks) that a hotel may be a relevant workplace if patrons may be affected by drugs or alcohol, which is about other people’s behaviour towards workers. The only place the codes we checked use the phrase “fitness for work” is the plant code, covered below. We also found nothing in the Act, Regulation or those codes that requires a business to run drug or alcohol testing.
Some work has its own fitness rules. The Regulation requires a current certificate of medical fitness for general diving work (sections 168 and 169), and section 228 of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (applied in Queensland by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld)) says a person must not drive a heavy vehicle on a road while impaired by fatigue or unfit to drive. For most other work, fitness for work is not a stand-alone legal rule. It is a way of managing a hazard under the general duties:
| Provision | In plain words |
|---|---|
| Section 19(1) and (2) of the WHS Act | A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its workers while at work, and that others are not put at risk by the work. The Act’s dictionary says health means physical and psychological health. |
| Section 19(3)(c), (f) and (g) | Safe systems of work; information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect all persons; and monitoring workers’ health and workplace conditions to prevent illness or injury arising from the business. |
| Sections 34 to 38 of the WHS Regulation | Identify reasonably foreseeable hazards, eliminate or minimise the risk, follow the hierarchy of control measures, keep controls effective, and review them. |
| Sections 47 to 49 of the WHS Act | Consult workers who are, or are likely to be, directly affected, including when identifying hazards, deciding on controls and proposing changes. |
What the approved codes say
An approved code of practice is guidance rather than law in itself, but section 26A of the WHS Act requires a PCBU to comply with it or manage the risk in a different way that gives an equivalent or higher standard of health and safety, and a court can rely on a code in deciding what is reasonably practicable (section 275). Several Queensland codes touch on fitness for work:
- The Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (Qld) says the person with management or control of plant should consider the risks from “operator fitness for work”, such as fatigue.
- The Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021 (Qld) says operators using work positioning systems or industrial rope access should be fit to perform the work and not affected by alcohol or drugs, including prescribed medication, that may impair their ability to work at height.
- The Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (Qld) lists, as responsibilities of an accredited traffic controller, a zero percent blood alcohol concentration while performing traffic control and not working while adversely affected by a drug or medication causing functional impairment.
- The Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice 2022 (Qld) lists challenging hours of work and shift work as a psychosocial hazard. Its example controls include rosters that allow a continuous seven to eight hours of sleep in each 24 hours, limits on overtime, not letting work regularly exceed a 12-hour shift, and minimising safety-critical tasks between 2am and 6am.
Section 55C of the WHS Regulation requires a PCBU to manage psychosocial risks under the same risk management steps. See our guides on psychosocial hazards and fatigue management.
What a business can do
This list is common practice, not a legal checklist. Adapt it to your own site.
- Treat it as a hazard. List the tasks where an impaired person could cause harm and the situations that make impairment likely, such as long shifts, early starts and heat. This is the step in section 34 of the WHS Regulation. “Safety-critical” is a practice term for tasks where one slip could seriously hurt someone, such as operating plant or working at height; the codes above single out tasks like these, so take extra care with them.
- Look at the work first. The hierarchy in section 36 of the Regulation puts substitution, isolation and engineering controls ahead of administrative controls. The How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021 (Qld) says administrative controls, such as procedures, rely on human behaviour and supervision. A policy helps, but changing rosters may control the risk better.
- Consult your workers. Ask the crew what makes it hard to turn up fit and share the draft policy first (sections 47 to 49 of the WHS Act).
- Write a short policy. Cover what you expect, what workers do if they are not fit, and what supervisors do. Our free Work Health & Safety Policy Template is a starting point, and the Fitness for Work Policy Template and Smoking, Drug & Alcohol Policy Template can help you adapt one to your business.
- Tell people and train supervisors. Section 19(3)(f) of the WHS Act and section 39 of the WHS Regulation expect information, training and instruction that is suitable, adequate and readily understandable. Supervisors need to know what to do beforehand.
- Review it. Revisit it when it is not working (for example after a notifiable incident), before changes to rosters or work, and when consultation shows a review is needed (section 38 of the WHS Regulation).
If fatigue is the main issue, the Fatigue Management Policy & Procedure Template may help. Our guides on drugs in the workplace and alcohol in the workplace go deeper on those topics.
A fair procedure when someone may not be fit
This is practice, not a legal script. A calm, consistent routine protects the worker and everyone around them.
- Act on what you see, not what you guess. Note the facts, such as unsteady on their feet, nodding off or not following instructions. Do not diagnose.
- Stop the task safely. Make the plant or vehicle safe and move the person away from the hazard.
- Talk privately. Say what you noticed and ask if they are all right. There may be a simple reason such as illness, new medication or a bad night.
- Decide the next step. Options include rest, different duties, going home or medical help. If the person should not drive, arrange safe transport. If anyone is in danger, call emergency services.
- Keep a short, factual record and take care over who can see it. Privacy rules sit outside the WHS Act (see the last section).
- Follow up. Ask what at work contributed, such as long hours or heat, and fix that. Offer support.
What workers must do
Section 28 of the WHS Act says that while at work, a worker must:
- take reasonable care for their own health and safety;
- take reasonable care that their acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of others;
- comply, so far as they are reasonably able, with any reasonable instruction from the PCBU; and
- co-operate with any reasonable health or safety policy or procedure of the PCBU that has been notified to workers.
Contractors, subcontractors, labour hire workers, apprentices and volunteers are workers under section 7 of the Act, so these duties reach them too, and section 29 gives similar duties to other people at a workplace, such as visitors. In practice, that means telling a supervisor early when illness, tiredness or a medicine could affect your task.
What a fitness for work policy should cover
- Who it applies to (employees, contractors, labour hire workers, visitors) and what fit for work means for your tasks, with extra detail for safety-critical ones.
- Hours and breaks, and what workers should do about alcohol, other drugs and medication that could affect their work.
- How to raise a concern about yourself or a workmate, and who to tell.
- What a supervisor does (the steps above), confidentiality, support and review with workers.
A made-up example
This example is made up, not a real business. Sam runs a 10-person landscaping crew. On Monday Jo, an apprentice, is slow and drifting just before Sam hands over the excavator. Sam keeps Jo on ground-level tasks and asks quietly if Jo is all right. Jo says a sick child kept the house up for two nights. Sam arranges a lift home at lunchtime and keeps a private note of the facts. Later Sam asks the crew about the late Friday finishes that leave everyone tired and, with their input, moves the heaviest excavator work to the morning.
What sits outside the WHS Act
This guide covers WHS duties only. Whether you can require drug or alcohol testing, how to handle private medical information, how anti-discrimination law applies to illness, disability or medication, and how unfair dismissal rules apply if you act on a worker’s fitness are separate matters under other laws, as are workers’ compensation and return-to-work arrangements. Get separate advice before you put testing or discipline into a policy.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law or talk to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for your situation.
Templates for this job
Ready-to-edit Word and Excel templates for Queensland workplaces.
