On 12 February 2026, the New South Wales Parliament passed the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Act 2026, amending the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW). The Act came into force on 18 February 2026. It is the first piece of Australian legislation to impose AI-specific duties on employers under workplace health and safety law — making NSW a first-mover on a question that every Australian jurisdiction will eventually need to answer.
What the Act covers
The Act introduces a new section 21A into the WHS Act 2011 (NSW). The duty requires persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs — effectively employers and those who control work) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of a worker is not put at risk from the allocation of work by a digital work system.
The key definition is digital work system: "an algorithm, artificial intelligence, automation or online platform." This is intentionally broad. It captures scheduling and rostering algorithms, AI-driven task allocation systems, gig economy dispatch platforms, warehouse management systems that assign pick routes, and any other technology that determines or substantially influences what work a person does, when, and under what conditions.
What PCBUs must consider
The new s 21A specifies factors PCBUs must consider when assessing whether work allocated by a digital work system puts worker health and safety at risk. These include: the intensity and pace of work generated by the system; whether the system provides for adequate rest breaks; the extent to which the system monitors or surveils workers; the accuracy and fairness of the system's outputs; and whether workers can contest decisions made by the system. The framing reflects the parliamentary inquiry findings that drove the legislation — that algorithmic work allocation in logistics, delivery, and gig sectors was producing psychosocial risks including work intensification, inadequate rest, and surveillance-related stress.
When the duty applies
The Act is in force. However, the new s 21A duty commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation — no proclamation date has been set as of June 2026. This means the duty is not yet legally operative. Organisations are not currently in breach if they have not yet conducted a s 21A assessment. But the proclamation date is not announced in advance, and a reasonable compliance programme requires preparation well before it arrives. The right of entry powers for WHS entry permit holders are subject to guidelines to be developed by SafeWork NSW; those guidelines must be consulted on publicly before taking effect.
Union right to inspect digital work systems
The Act also introduces new powers for WHS entry permit holders — union representatives who hold WHS permits under the WHS Act — to require PCBUs to provide reasonable assistance to access and inspect a digital work system where a suspected contravention of the WHS Act is involved. This is a significant expansion of union inspection rights into the technology layer of the workplace. Businesses with complex or proprietary algorithmic systems will need to consider what "reasonable assistance" means and how to prepare for such inspections without compromising commercial confidentiality. PCBUs are not required to provide access where doing so would contravene another federal or state law.
The national harmonisation question
NSW's Act diverges from all other Australian jurisdictions at a time when Safe Work Australia is engaged in a process to harmonise WHS laws nationally. The Australian Industry Group criticised the passage of the Act on precisely these grounds: that it introduces AI-specific duties and union right-of-entry provisions that no other jurisdiction has, creating compliance complexity for organisations operating across state borders. The NSW Government's position is that existing WHS law already applied to digital systems of work — the Act removes any remaining doubt and makes the obligations explicit.
What this means for organisations
Even before proclamation, the Act signals the direction of Australian WHS regulation for AI. Any organisation that uses algorithms, AI, automation, or online platforms to allocate work to employees or contractors in NSW has an interest in preparing now. Practically, this means: mapping which digital work systems allocate work to NSW workers; assessing whether those systems create risks to physical or psychological health (work intensity, surveillance, contestability); documenting the controls in place; and monitoring SafeWork NSW for the proclamation date and the right-of-entry guidelines.
Organisations with material gig economy, logistics, warehousing, or platform-work exposure in NSW face the most immediate obligation to assess their systems. Financial services, professional services, and technology firms that use AI for scheduling, task routing, or performance monitoring are also in scope if the system allocates work rather than merely supporting human allocation decisions.
For the broader AI governance question — what obligations apply to your organisation's use of AI — the AIRA AI Governance Health Check provides a structured assessment across the current Australian obligation landscape.
Primary sources: Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Act 2026 (NSW) | PwC Australia — When technology becomes a WHS risk (Feb 2026) | Hamilton Locke — NSW Parliament passes WHS Digital Work System Duty