Welcome to this week’s Zenergy Take 5 — five things worth your attention across workplace health and safety, workers compensation and people and culture, plus one senior role we’re recruiting right now. Deadlines and celebrations this week: the workplace exposure limits switch-over is a fortnight away, and the profession’s best were honoured at the national WHS awards — which Zenergy was proud to sponsor. 1. Safe Work Australia rewrites 15 Codes of Practice ahead of the WEL deadline On 12 November, Safe Work Australia published revised versions of 15 model Codes of Practice, updating them for the transition from workplace exposure standards (WES) to workplace exposure limits (WEL). The revised codes span asbestos management and removal, respirable crystalline silica, hazardous chemicals, safety data sheets and labelling, demolition, excavation, abrasive blasting, spray painting and powder coating, welding, confined spaces, noise, healthcare and social assistance, and general WHS risk management. The substance of the updates is terminology and signposting: references to the old WES are replaced with the WEL list, and each code now points to newly published air monitoring guidance. The WEL list commences on 1 December 2026; until 30 November, the current WES list remains the legal benchmark. From 1 December, duty holders must ensure no one at the workplace is exposed to an airborne contaminant above its WEL. One caveat: model codes only take effect in each state or territory once adopted, and the WEL list must be picked up in each jurisdiction’s WHS laws — so check where your regulator stands. Our deep-dive this week unpacks what HSE leaders should do in the final fortnight. Read Deep Dive Article HERE Source: Safe Work Australia, media release and revised model Codes of Practice, 12 November 2026 — safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2. Key dates: the AIHS WA Symposium headlines a busy fortnight The Australian Institute of Health and Safety’s 2026 WA Symposium runs in Perth this Friday, 20 November — the flagship WA gathering for the profession. Earlier in the week, two timely AIHS webinars are worth an hour: AI and the Future of WHS (Tuesday 17 November, presented with MinterEllison) and Hot Takes: Heat Stress — Fact, Fiction and Failure (Wednesday 18 November), well timed as summer heat plans get dusted off. Further out, the AIHS ACT Safety Breakfast lands on 27 November, alongside state networking events in Tasmania and NSW. 3. People and culture: $6.8m psych claim fails as court finds a “personality clash”, not bullying HR Daily reports that a court has rejected a $6.8 million damages claim brought by a “difficult employee” over alleged workplace bullying, finding the conflict between the manager and their supervisor was “a mutually driven personality clash” rather than bullying — and ordering the unsuccessful claimant to pay costs. For employers, the decision is a reminder that interpersonal conflict and reasonable management action are not, of themselves, bullying — and that contemporaneous records of how concerns were raised and managed are what carry the day in court. It cuts the other way too: unmanaged conflict is still a recognised psychosocial hazard, and the cheapest time to deal with it is long before anyone briefs a lawyer. Source: HR Daily, “‘Difficult employee’ loses $6.8m psych claim, with costs” (subscription) — hrdaily.com.au 4. National recognition: the 2026 Australian Workplace Health and Safety Awards winners The winners of the 2026 Australian Workplace Health and Safety Awards (AWHSA) were announced at the annual gala in Sydney on Thursday 12 November, following a record 200 entries and 52 finalists across nine categories. Woolworths Group’s Acts of Violence and Aggression (AOVA) Squad was named WHS Team of the Year after reducing severe incidents in high-risk stores by 59 per cent and helping pioneer Workplace Protection Orders to keep repeat offenders out of stores. Louise Belcher (bp Australia) and Andrew Pachioli (ADCO Constructions) took the WHS Leader of the Year honours, Skilltech’s Dylan Cubitt was named WHS Rising Star, and Paul Cooper of Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service was recognised as HSR of the Year — with Vodafone, Brisbane Catholic Education, the Jemena/Zinfra Group and BMD Group winning the training, wellbeing, return-to-work and innovation categories. “Every Australian has the right to go to work and come home safely,” AIHS CEO Julia Whitford said. “These awards recognise the people and teams working hard to make that happen.” Zenergy was a proud sponsor of this year’s awards — congratulations to every finalist and winner. The full winners list, and the themes running through the winning work, are in our second deep-dive this week. >>> Full List of Winners <<< 5. Industry story: $150,000 fine after labour-hire worker paralysed in tree-cutting fall A construction company has been fined $150,000 after a labour-hire worker was left a paraplegic by a fall at a Carrum Downs site in Melbourne’s south-east. In March 2024, the worker — an experienced carpenter, not a qualified arborist — was asked to remove a large gum tree branch so trucks could access the site. Working from a 3.7-metre A-frame ladder to cut the six-metre branch with a chainsaw, he fell headfirst when the branch swung down and struck the ladder, dislocating his spinal column. The company pleaded guilty at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work and failing to prepare a safe work method statement for high-risk construction work, and was fined $150,000 plus $13,335 in costs. WorkSafe Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said the worker’s life “has been forever changed”, and that WorkSafe “will continue to prosecute employers who fail to address this well-known hazard.” The enduring lesson sits upstream of the ladder: matching the task to a person actually competent to do it. Asking a carpenter to do an arborist’s job — without the planning document that would have forced the question — is where this incident was really decided. Source: WorkSafe Victoria, “Company fined after worker paralysed in tree-cutting fall”, 13 November 2026 — worksafe.vic.gov.au ★ Featured role: General Manager Health and Safety We’re recruiting a General Manager Health & Safety - an opportunity to lead the safety function with a national technical and facilities services provider. With branches in every state and territory, they deliver essential maintenance and services across commercial, government, healthcare, education, mining and marine sectors The role: • Lead the development and governance of the occupational safety framework and set company-wide standards • Oversee critical safety controls, lead incident investigations and use safety data to drive decisions • Engage regulators and industry bodies, and mentor the HSE team What you’ll bring: • Significant HSE leadership experience in high-risk industries • Tertiary qualifications in OHS, occupational hygiene or a related field (postgraduate regarded) • Strong stakeholder, root-cause analysis and coaching skills What’s on offer: $270,000 - $320,000 Melbourne Victoria Apply via www.zenergygroup.com.au/job-results or contact J oanne Retalick on 0482 076 255 for a confidential chat.

15 Codes of Practice, One Deadline: Getting WEL-Ready by 1 December On 12 November, with little fanfare, Safe Work Australia published revised versions of 15 model Codes of Practice in a single day. The reason is a date every HSE leader with airborne contaminants on their risk register should already have circled: 1 December 2026, when the new workplace exposure limits (WEL) replace the workplace exposure standards (WES) that Australian workplaces have relied on for decades. We covered the WEL deadline itself back in October. This article is about the step that follows: the codes and the paperwork. If your safe work method statements, exposure monitoring plans or chemical procedures cite a WES — or a 2019-era code of practice — they are about to reference a superseded standard. What changed on 12 November Safe Work Australia revised 15 model Codes of Practice to reflect the WES-to-WEL transition. The list reaches well beyond the obvious chemical codes: managing and controlling asbestos, and asbestos removal; respirable crystalline silica; managing risks of hazardous chemicals; preparation of safety data sheets; labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals; demolition; excavation; abrasive blasting; spray painting and powder coating; welding processes; confined spaces; managing noise and preventing hearing loss; healthcare and social assistance; and the general code on how to manage work health and safety risks. The revisions swap WES references for the WEL list and point readers to newly published air monitoring guidance. They are not a rewrite of the underlying duties — but they do change what the authoritative reference documents say, which matters the moment an inspector, auditor or court compares your paperwork against the current code. From WES to WEL: why this is more than a rename The WEL list is the product of Safe Work Australia’s multi-year review of exposure values, and limits for a number of commonly encountered contaminants have been revised in the process. Until 30 November, the WES list remains the legal benchmark; from 1 December, duty holders must ensure no worker is exposed to an airborne contaminant above its limit in the WEL list. That shift has a practical sting: a workplace that sat comfortably under an old WES may have far less headroom — or none — under the corresponding WEL. The only way to know is current exposure data, which is exactly why the revised codes lean so heavily on the new air monitoring guidance. Five practical steps before 1 December First, inventory your airborne contaminants. Pull the hazardous chemicals register, dust and fume risk assessments and any historical monitoring results, and list every substance with an exposure value attached. Second, map your documentation. Search SWMS, procedures, training materials and contractor packs for WES references and citations of the superseded codes, and schedule the updates — this is tedious, clerical and precisely what gets sampled in an audit. Third, check your headroom. For each contaminant, compare your most recent monitoring results against the incoming WEL, not the outgoing WES. Where results are near the limit — or the data is old — commission monitoring in line with the new guidance before the deadline forces the issue. Fourth, brief the business. Site leaders, supervisors and HSRs should hear what is changing, what it means for their tasks and controls, and what will be different about monitoring. A ten-minute toolbox item beats a December surprise. Fifth, confirm your jurisdiction’s position. Model codes only take effect once a state or territory adopts them, and the WEL list lands through each jurisdiction’s WHS laws. Most regulators are moving in step, but the commencement detail is a question for your regulator — not an assumption. The capability question The WEL transition is, quietly, an occupational hygiene capability test. Reading monitoring data, judging whether a result leaves adequate headroom, and specifying the right monitoring regime are specialist skills — and demand for them spikes around exactly this kind of deadline. If the capability isn’t in-house, the pragmatic options are a hygienist engagement for the transition, or interim HSE support to carry the documentation and monitoring workload while your permanent team runs the business. After 20 years recruiting across every level of HSE leadership, our observation is simple: the organisations that handle regulatory transitions well are the ones that treat them as a resourcing question early, not a compliance scramble late. Talk to Zenergy If the WEL transition has exposed a gap — a hygiene-literate safety lead, an interim resource to clear the documentation backlog, or a permanent hire to own exposure management — talk to a Zenergy consultant. We place HSE professionals across construction, manufacturing, mining, transport, energy and healthcare nationally. Browse current roles at www.zenergygroup.com.au/job-results or get in touch for a confidential conversation. Sources Safe Work Australia — media release and revised model Codes of Practice, 12 November 2026 (safeworkaustralia.gov.au); Safe Work Australia — airborne contaminants hub and air monitoring guidance; Safe Work Australia — Workplace exposure limits for airborne contaminants (commencing 1 December 2026).

The health and safety profession’s night of nights delivered in style. The winners of the 2026 Australian Workplace Health and Safety Awards (AWHSA) were announced at the annual gala in Sydney on Thursday 12 November, capping a record year for the awards: 200 entries — the most ever — narrowed to 52 finalists across nine categories by a judging panel of 30. Zenergy was a proud sponsor of this year’s awards, and it was a privilege to see the depth of talent and ingenuity across the profession we’ve served for 20 years. “Every Australian has the right to go to work and come home safely. These awards recognise the people and teams working hard to make that happen and improve conditions for workers across the country,” said Julia Whitford, CEO of the Australian Institute of Health & Safety. “The judges were impressed by the high standard of entries. Each showcased how individuals and organisations are going above and beyond ‘business as usual’ to demonstrate innovation and drive improvements in work health and safety outcomes.” The 2026 winners  WHS Leader of the Year (under 1,000 employees): Andrew Pachioli, ADCO Constructions WHS Leader of the Year (over 1,000 employees): Louise Belcher, bp Australia WHS Rising Star: Dylan Cubitt, Skilltech, a Downer company HSR of the Year: Paul Cooper, Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service WHS Team of the Year: Acts of Violence and Aggression (AOVA) Squad, Woolworths Group Best Recovery & Return to Work: Zinfra Injury Management Team, Jemena/Zinfra Group Best Health & Wellbeing Strategy: BCE Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Brisbane Catholic Education Best WHS Training and Development: Managing Aggressive and Disrespectful Customer Training, Vodafone Best WHS Technology and Innovation: Molonglo River Bridge Lifting Program, BMD Group What the winning work has in common Read the winners list as a snapshot of where Australian WHS is heading and three themes stand out. The first is the frontline customer interface. Woolworths’ AOVA Squad took Team of the Year after reducing severe incidents in high-risk stores by 59 per cent and helping pioneer Workplace Protection Orders to keep repeat offenders out — and Vodafone’s winning training program tackles the same hazard from the capability side, equipping retail teams to manage aggressive and disrespectful customers. Violence and aggression towards customer-facing workers has moved from an HR talking point to a managed, measured safety risk, and the best programs are now delivering hard numbers. The second theme is the whole-of-person view of safety. Brisbane Catholic Education’s winning health and wellbeing strategy and the Zinfra Injury Management Team’s recovery and return-to-work win both reflect a profession that increasingly treats wellbeing, recovery and prevention as one discipline rather than three departments. The third is engineering ambition. BMD Group’s Molonglo River Bridge Lifting Program took the technology and innovation category — a reminder that some of the best safety thinking in the country is happening in the planning of complex, high-consequence lifts, not just in policy documents. And running through all of it: individual leadership. From Andrew Pachioli and Louise Belcher’s recognition at opposite ends of the organisational scale, to Paul Cooper showing what an engaged HSR can achieve in a hospital system, to Dylan Cubitt’s Rising Star award for his work supporting field workers — the awards are, in the end, about people who decided the standard in their patch would be higher. Why Zenergy partners with the awards Zenergy sponsors the AWHSA because recognition matters to a profession that mostly succeeds invisibly. When nothing goes wrong, it’s because somebody did a great deal of unglamorous work right — and a national stage that celebrates that work lifts the whole discipline: gives emerging practitioners something to aim at, and reminds everyone that safety excellence is a career, not a compliance function. There’s a hiring lesson in the list, too. Award-winning safety outcomes are built by deliberately assembled teams — the right leader, the right technical depth, the right cultural fit — and after 20 years recruiting across every level of HSE leadership, we’ve watched that pattern repeat in every sector represented on this year’s winners list. Congratulations to all 52 finalists and nine winners — and thank you to the AIHS for another outstanding celebration of the profession. If you’re building the team that wins one of these in 2027, talk to a Zenergy consultant on 1300 333 400, or browse current roles at www.zenergygroup.com.au/job-results.

Toto Wolff has a philosophy that every CEO, operational leader and WHS professional should consider: "We blame the problem and not the person."

Welcome to Take 5, Zenergy's five-minute scan of what's moving in Australian workplace health and safety, workers compensation, and people and culture. This week: Victoria puts a date and a dollar figure on on-the-spot fines, the Fair Work Commission's generative AI rules take effect, and Safe Work Australia's annual data lands with a confronting headline number. 1. Victoria locks in on-the-spot fines for falls and SWMS breaches From 31 March 2027, WorkSafe Victoria inspectors will be able to issue infringement notices — on-the-spot fines — under the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2026. The confirmed offences: failing to use a control measure for a fall risk (up to $2,091 for a company, $418.20 for an individual), starting high-risk construction work without a Safe Work Method Statement, and failing to keep a SWMS or required fall-risk records readily accessible (up to $1,254.60 for a company). The Victorian Government confirmed the start date and amounts on 21 October. No new duties are created — these are existing obligations. What changes is the speed of enforcement: a breach an inspector once handled with a notice or a long prosecution can now cost money the same day. We unpack what it means, and what the courts are doing in parallel, in this week's deep dive. Also on the radar: Australia's new Workplace Exposure Limits replace the old exposure standards from 1 December 2026 — one month out. If your chemical register and SDS library haven't been checked against the new limits, now is the time (Safe Work Australia). Sources: WorkSafe Victoria — New infringement notices for falls and high-risk construction work offences (worksafe.vic.gov.au/new-infringement-notices-falls-and-high-risk-construction-work-offences); Premier of Victoria media release, 21 October 2026 (premier.vic.gov.au/labor-brings-spot-fines-unsafe-worksites); Safe Work Australia — New workplace exposure limits (WEL) to apply from 1 December 2026 (safeworkaustralia.gov.au). 2. Key dates: Movember and the Australian Workplace Health & Safety Awards Movember runs all month, putting men's health — mental health and suicide prevention, prostate and testicular cancer — on the agenda. It's a natural fit for safety teams in male-dominated industries: 93% of the workers who died at work in 2025 were men (Safe Work Australia). A toolbox talk, a fundraising crew or a wellbeing check-in all count. On the calendar: the 2026 Australian Workplace Health & Safety Awards run 12–13 November in NSW, and AIHS branches host events through the fortnight, including the South Australian Safety Breakfast on 5 November (AIHS events calendar). Sources: Movember (movember.com); AIHS events (aihs.org.au); Safe Work Australia — Key WHS Statistics Australia 2026. 3. People & culture: the Fair Work Commission's generative AI rules are now in force New Fair Work Commission guidance on the use of generative AI in Commission matters took effect on 20 October. Anyone who uses generative AI to help prepare a document lodged in a case must disclose that use — and a person must verify that every fact, case and quote in the document exists and says what it's claimed to say. Asking another AI tool to check doesn't count. The guidance reaches further than many employers expect: an HR adviser representing their own employer falls within the definition of a professional representative. Documents that don't comply can be given less weight, disregarded, or in serious cases see the matter dismissed with costs. If your HR team touches unfair dismissal responses, witness statements or submissions, map where AI is being used and put a verification step in writing (Fair Work Commission; HRD Australia, 20 October 2026). Sources: Fair Work Commission (fwc.gov.au); HRD Australia — Fair Work Commission AI disclosure rules now in force for employers, 20 October 2026 (hcamag.com). 4. Job market pulse: vacancies ease, construction holds The ABS's latest Job Vacancies release (August 2026 quarter, published 1 October) counted 325,000 vacancies nationally, down 0.9% over the quarter and 1.3% over the year. Private sector vacancies fell 2.0% to 286,300 while public sector vacancies rose 7.8% to 38,700 — and construction vacancies held broadly steady at around 20,000. For HSE hiring, that reads as a market that has cooled from its peak but is still competitive for proven safety talent, particularly in construction and infrastructure. Sources: ABS — Job Vacancies, Australia, August 2026 (abs.gov.au); SEEK (seek.com.au). 5. Industry story of the week: 222 lives — Australia's worst year since 2012 Safe Work Australia's Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2026, released in October, confirms that 222 workers died at work in 2025 — the highest annual toll since 2012 and well above the five-year average of 197. Vehicle incidents accounted for 92 deaths, falls from height 28 and falling objects 21: together, nearly two-thirds of the total. Construction recorded 41 deaths; transport, postal and warehousing the most of any industry at 61. The compensation data tells its own story. Around 147,200 serious claims were lodged in 2024–25, and mental health conditions now account for 17,900 of them — 12.2% of the total, up 169% since 2014–15. A typical mental health claim involves a median 34.8 weeks off work and $68,600 in compensation, roughly five times the time lost of other serious claims. "The data is confronting, but it also tells us where action is needed," said Safe Work Australia CEO Marie Boland. Sources: Safe Work Australia — Key WHS Statistics Australia 2026 (data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/reports/key-whs-statistics-australia/latest-release) and media release, October 2026 (safeworkaustralia.gov.au). Featured role: Health & Safety Manager - $175,000 + Sydney NSW | Permanent, full time Our client is a large, well-established organisation operating across a diverse range of business functions and operational environments. With a broad workforce and complex risk profile, the organisation is committed to strengthening its health and safety practices, improving consistency and embedding a proactive approach to risk management. Apply via the Zenergy job board —for a confidential conversation call the team on 1300 333 400 Hiring HSE talent, or weighing your own next move? Talk to a Zenergy consultant — 20 years of trusted partnerships across every level of HSE leadership. Visit zenergygroup.com.au.