Input sought on improving occupational health and safety measures for workers operating on crowd platforms

Safe Work Australia is seeking responses on how crowd platform arrangements should be regulated under the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act, with the goal of ensuring that people earning income through digital labour marketplaces receive protections equivalent to those provided to other workers.

The short answer: our national policy body wants feedback on who owes safety duties when a client hires someone through an online marketplace, and how any such duty should be written into harmonised law. Responses will shape future guidance for on-demand services across construction, logistics, cleaning and care.

Key points at a glance

• Who is affected: platform operators, paying clients, and self-employed people delivering services through an app.
• Core problem: uncertainty about who holds duties for workplace health and safety when jobs are won by competitive bid.
• Driver: concern that some people picking up gigs online are not adequately shielded from hazards.
• Likely outcome: clearer duty-holder definitions plus firmer safety management expectations for digital intermediaries.

What crowd platforms are

“Crowd platforms are a type of digital labour platform that connect workers and clients,” says Safe Work Australia.

“Clients can select workers from a pool of applicants who submit bids through the platform, with terms and negotiation often undertaken directly between the client and worker.”

Bidding of that kind sits outside conventional workplace structures. Shifts are not rostered, tasks are not supervised on site, and rarely does anybody sign off a management plan before tools leave the ute. Money moves through an app; accountability for hazards does not always travel with it.

Where the regulatory gap sits

Safe Work Australia states that there is uncertainty regarding who holds responsibility for work health and safety in crowd platform work.

The safety regulator indicates that this has raised concerns that certain workers operating crowd platforms might not be sufficiently safeguarded against health and safety hazards.

Harmonised legislation places duties on a person conducting a business or undertaking towards anyone whose activities that entity influences or directs. Applying such a test to a marketplace which simply brokers services is where interpretation turns murky, and where risk management expectations blur between the digital intermediary and whoever pays the invoice.

Crowd platforms seldom engage people as employees, which is precisely why allocation of duties matters so much. Absent a traditional engagement relationship, the safety net depends entirely on how far platform influence over the job actually extends.

Why safety management matters more in gig arrangements

Duty holders and management accountability

Clarity is the first control. Where a platform, its client and a sole trader each assume somebody else owns safety management, gaps open exactly where hazardous tasks occur: roof repairs, switchboard faults, night deliveries, in-home care services.

Written management arrangements close such gaps. Recording who plans, who verifies competency and who investigates incidents converts goodwill into an auditable management system.

Practical controls for platform operators

• Verification at onboarding: licences, tickets and insurance confirmed before anyone lists services, with expiry reminders embedded in management workflows.
• Hazard disclosure: job briefs describing site conditions honestly, so whoever quotes can plan risk controls and price them properly.
• Contract clarity: a written services agreement naming who supplies plant, PPE and site access.
• Incident reporting: an in-app channel feeding a central register that gets reviewed at management meetings rather than filed and forgotten.
• Consequence management: suspending listings where unsafe practice is substantiated, then reinstating only after corrective action.
• Lone-worker support: automated check-ins backed by emergency services contact details inside the app.
• Feedback loops: post-job prompts asking whether promised equipment, access or amenities were genuinely provided.

Documentation for sole traders selling services online

Independent contractors carry obligations of their own. A compact management pack — policy, hazard register, safe work method statements and plant inspection records — proves competence to buyers while satisfying principal-contractor management requirements on larger projects.

Our Occupational Health and Safety Manual and WHS Policy template give small operators a defensible starting point without months of drafting.

OHS management expectations that survive scrutiny

Regulators look for evidence, not good intentions. Three markers usually decide whether an OHS system stands up: visible management commitment, records showing controls proportionate to the risk profile of each job, and proof of management review following every incident or near miss.

Digital marketplaces hold a quiet advantage here. Timestamped bookings, in-app messaging and rating histories generate management documentation that paper-based systems struggle to match — provided somebody actually analyses what accumulates.

Sectors already relying on platform-sourced labour

• Construction: trade services quoted job by job, often on residential sites with thin supervision.
• Logistics: courier and last-mile delivery services performed under time pressure in traffic.
• Facilities: commercial cleaning services carried out after hours, frequently alone.
• Healthcare and disability: in-home support services where the workplace is somebody’s lounge room.
• Professional and creative: professional services delivered remotely, where psychosocial hazards dominate exposure.

What a strong response can cover

Feedback proves most useful when grounded in lived experience. Consider addressing:

• Which party realistically controls each hazard, and whether current management practices reflect that reality.
• How competency checks, insurance and induction should work across thousands of very short engagements.
• Whether app-based instruction lifts safety performance or merely builds a paper trail.
• Cost and administrative impact on micro-businesses offering services through several marketplaces at once.
• Sensible management oversight limits when the buyer is a household rather than a company.

Any study of insecure arrangements tends to surface a familiar theme: diluted oversight weakens supervision, reporting and hazard control alike.

Next steps for operators and contractors

Do not wait for legislation. Three moves lift a management approach straight away:

1. Map duties. Write down management responsibilities for every party involved in a typical job.
2. Standardise paperwork. Issue templates so each contractor submits a job-specific risk assessment before quoting.
3. Close the loop. Review incidents monthly, then adjust management controls accordingly.

Mapping OHS duties early is far cheaper than defending them later. Ready-made occupational safety and health management system templates shorten that groundwork considerably.

Further reading and where to comment

Our complete overview of occupational safety and health and Who Is Responsible For Workplace Safety and Health? explain duty allocation in plain language. Industry advisory services, peak bodies and events such as the Workplace Health and Safety Show offer additional perspective, while state regulators publish safety guidance aimed at young workers.

Whether your business operates platform services or bids for jobs through them, clear duties, honest hazard disclosure and a management culture that acts on reports will always outperform legal ambiguity. Seek professional advice about how obligations apply to your operating model, and lodge comments with the regulator directly.

Read more here.