Australia Model Code of Practice: Healthcare and Social Assistance Industry 3.7g: 3.7 Manage WHS risks in private homes, including smoking and the right to refuse unsafe work

A client's home is also the worker's workplace, and the duty to provide a safe working environment extends to private homes. Work with homeowners, clients and families to minimise risk, conduct a risk assessment before visiting and put in place suitable controls. Client rights in their home, such as to smoke, may conflict with workers' rights to a safe workplace, and the PCBU must still eliminate or minimise risk as far as reasonably practicable, consulting with the homeowner or client. Workers may stop or refuse work they reasonably believe is unsafe. Smoke from cigarettes, vapes and similar products can cause cancer and workers should not be exposed, so smoking should not occur near workers. Share identified hazards (for example a dangerous pet) with workers and other providers, and where risk is high deliver care elsewhere. Example controls cover safe access and movement (gates and doors, clear paths, repaired steps, grass, moss, leaf litter, restrained pets, lighting, grab rails, clearly marked level changes, no clutter, workspace for comfortable posture, mechanical aids such as hoists, rugs that are not trip hazards, clearly labelled cleaning products, clear exits, working locks), the home being safe to work in (not damp or mouldy, laundry drainage, clothesline within reach, bed height, storage between knee and shoulder height, no drug paraphernalia, vermin or rotten floorboards), and utilities (smoke alarms, safe electrical equipment, maintained appliances and lighting). In the aged care case the facility concluded after a risk assessment that risk to staff supervising smoking outweighed residents' wish to smoke and phased smoking out with quit support.