New OHS Space, Safety and First‑Aid Duties: What Employers Must Fix on the Ground

John Botha
1 day ago
5 min read

Why this notice matters

The December 2025 notice under the Occupational Health and Safety Act sharpens long‑standing Environmental and General Safety Regulations and ties them to explicit criminal penalties for non‑compliance. For employers, this is not an abstract legal tweak: it directly affects space planning, housekeeping standards, emergency readiness, risk assessment systems, and first‑aid staffing at every workplace.

Space, clutter, and usable floor area

The Environmental Regulations now spell out that, in indoor workplaces (other than building sites), employers must provide at least 2.25 m² of effective open floor area per employee and maintain sufficient clear space at every machine so work can be done safely. “Effective open floor area” excludes areas blocked by furniture, storage, or machinery, so crowded offices, workshops, and warehouses may need re‑planning, decluttering, or reduced occupancy to comply.

In practice, this means HR and facilities must work together to map floor areas, count occupants per zone, and redesign layouts so workstations, circulation routes, and machine access points are free of obstructions. Space standards also give health and safety reps a concrete benchmark for objections where overcrowding or “hot‑desking” creeps into unsafe territory.

Housekeeping, building integrity, and fall hazards

The regulations reinforce a basic but often neglected truth: a safe workplace starts with housekeeping. Employers must keep indoor workplaces clean and orderly, maintain floors, walkways, stairs, and passages in good repair, skid‑free and unobstructed, and ensure roofs and walls are sound and leak‑free.

All openings, hatchways, stairways, and open sides where a person could fall must be boarded, fenced, or otherwise guarded, with temporary removal allowed only when necessary for access or moving materials, and then under controlled conditions. Where overhead work could result in falling objects, the employer must install catch platforms or nets or clearly fence off danger areas, which has immediate implications for contractors, maintenance teams, and multi‑storey plants.

Flooding, fire, and escaping the building

Where there is a substantial risk of flooding, employers must have systems to receive immediate warning of imminent flooding and must warn people in writing before erecting constructions that could cause water to accumulate or converge. For sites near dams, rivers, or stormwater channels, this calls for documented flood‑risk assessments, integration with local early‑warning systems, and clear internal communication protocols.

Fire precautions and means of egress are also tightened: escape doors should, as far as practicable, open outwards, stay clear and be easy to open from inside; stairways need substantial handrails; fire‑escape stairs must be non‑combustible, unobstructed and must not discharge into enclosed dead‑ends. Workplaces must have at least two escape routes where appropriate, and all escape routes must be suitably wide and graded, forcing employers to re‑look at locked doors, grilles, internal security barriers, and mezzanine structures that compromise evacuation.

Fire‑fighting equipment and emergency planning

Employers must provide an adequate supply of suitable fire‑fighting equipment at strategic points, taking into account the size, construction, and location of the workplace and the nature and quantity of flammable materials present. Equipment must be maintained in good working order, which practically means an inventory, inspection schedule, service records, and clear signage so employees can find and use extinguishers quickly.

This regulatory emphasis dovetails with broader emergency preparedness: evacuation drills, updated fire plans, clear assembly points, and role allocation (fire marshals, floor wardens) become demonstrable compliance tools rather than “nice‑to‑have” policy statements. For multi‑tenant buildings, employers must ensure their plans align with the landlord’s systems and that responsibilities are clearly allocated in lease or service agreements.

Risk assessments as a living system

General Safety Regulation 2 requires every employer and user of machinery to evaluate risks arising from their activities and to take necessary steps to make conditions safe for any person at or affected by the workplace. This pushes risk assessment beyond a once‑off document toward an ongoing, auditable process that feeds into training, safe‑work procedures, permits‑to‑work, and contractor management.

In practical terms, employers should maintain a current OHS risk register, record control measures, assign responsible persons, and review risks when processes, equipment, or staffing change. Machinery users must integrate manufacturer guidance, lock‑out procedures, and guarding standards into this system and must be able to show inspectors that risk assessments are communicated and embedded, not just filed.

First aiders, shifts, and certificate management

Under General Safety Regulation 3, any workplace with more than ten employees must have at least one certified first‑aider readily available for every 50 employees, or for every 100 employees in shops and offices. First‑aiders must hold valid competency certificates issued by specified organisations or providers approved by the Chief Inspector, so employers need to verify provider status and keep copies of certificates on file.

Coverage must be planned per site, per shift, and with leave and remote work patterns in mind, not just per headcount on the organogram. HR and OHS teams should maintain a first‑aider register, track certificate expiry dates, organise refresher training, and ensure clear signage in workplaces showing where first‑aid boxes are located and who the responsible first‑aiders are.

Criminal exposure and the case for proactive audits

The amended Environmental Regulations (including housekeeping, flooding, and fire precautions) and key General Safety Regulations (including risk assessment and first aid) now carry explicit criminal penalties for contraventions. Breaches can lead to fines, imprisonment of up to six months, and additional daily fines or imprisonment for continuing offences, capped at a further ninety days of imprisonment.

This enforcement framework raises the stakes for boards, executives, and line managers who can no longer treat OHS compliance as a delegated technical matter. A pragmatic response is to launch structured OHS audits focusing on space standards, housekeeping, structural integrity, escape routes, fire equipment, risk assessments, and first‑aid coverage, with action plans, deadlines, and accountability built into performance management and health and safety committee agendas.

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