Onboarding subcontractors under WHS: the principal contractor's checklist

Every time a subcontractor joins your site, their compliance becomes part of your risk. Under the model WHS laws, duty holders must consult, cooperate and coordinate — which in practice means you need to know, before a subbie starts, that they can do the work safely and are properly covered.

What to collect

At a minimum: their SWMS for any high-risk construction work they'll do; public liability insurance and workers' compensation (or a personal accident policy for sole traders); relevant licences and White Cards for their workers; and any plant registration and pre-start records for equipment they bring on site.

Check it actually fits

Collecting documents is not the same as checking them. Confirm the insurance is current and the cover amount and scope match the work; confirm licences are the right class and in date; and confirm the SWMS is specific to the job, not a generic template. This is where onboarding usually falls down — documents are gathered but never actually verified.

Keep it live

Insurances lapse and tickets expire mid-project. The goal is a live picture of your supply chain, with anything missing or expiring flagged automatically — not a folder of PDFs that was accurate on the day the subbie started.