Australia Model Code of Practice Managing the Risks of Biological Hazards at Work 10.2: Prepare, maintain and implement an emergency plan covering effective emergency response, evacuation, early notification of emergency services, medical treatment and assistance, and communication between the coordinator and everyone at the workplace, shaped by the work, hazards, size, location and people, covering uncontrolled escape, spill or leakage in laboratories and notification of offsite workers, reflecting incident notification duties, with defined testing, training and accessibility, regularly reviewed

What does 10.2 require?

Incidents still happen despite good controls, body fluids sprayed during work with people or animals, sewage backing up into a building, so the PCBU must be ready to act when a biological hazard seriously threatens the health and safety of workers and others. Regulation 43 requires a workplace emergency plan, prepared and kept current, that provides for an effective response to an emergency, evacuation procedures, early notification of emergency services, medical treatment and assistance, and effective communication between the person authorised to coordinate the response and everyone at the workplace. The plan is shaped by the nature of the work and its hazards, by the size and location of the workplace, and by the number and make-up of workers and others present: a laboratory that handles hazardous biological material needs arrangements for an uncontrolled escape, spill or leak, and workers off site or working remotely may need to be warned of an incident that bars them from returning. Any duty to notify the WHS regulator is written into the plan, and the PCBU must set out how, and how often, the plan will be tested and how workers will be informed, trained and instructed about it; the plan is kept easy to reach and is reviewed and updated regularly so that it keeps working.