By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
What happens if a solar installer gets work health and safety duties wrong?
For a solar installer, a missed work health and safety duty is rarely just a letter from a regulator. It can mean a licence under review, a rebate claim or certificate held up, or a worker hurt on a roof that should never have been climbed that day. The business carries live DC and AC systems and roof access on almost every job, so the margin for a shortcut is thinner than in most trades.
Most solar businesses start as one person doing the quoting, the install, the paperwork and the safety call on site, often without a formal system behind any of it. A system that lives in someone's memory, written at the start of the business and never revisited, tends to drift as jobs get bigger, crews grow and the work moves from a simple residential roof to commercial solar or battery retrofits with different risks attached.
Who counts as a PCBU in a solar business, and what does it mean for you?
If you engage workers, or direct workers, to do rooftop solar installation work, you are a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) under work health and safety law, whatever the size of your crew. According to the Guide to managing the risks of rooftop solar installation work, all PCBUs have a primary duty to protect the health and safety of workers at work, and of others who may be affected, such as the homeowner standing in the driveway while the crew is on the roof.
That duty doesn't scale down because you're a sole trader with one ute and one ladder. It applies the same whether you're running a two-panel residential install or a commercial solar array with a full crew and subbies on site.
What duties apply to roof access and live electrical work on a solar install?
Before a worker enters a domestic roof space, the electrical installation generally has to be de-energised by a competent person, and that includes the solar system itself. WorkSafe Queensland's guidance on domestic roof spaces makes the point that a solar installation stays energised even after the main switch is off, because the panel and the supply cable keep carrying current. The same principle is repeated in WorkSafe NT's bulletin for solar PV installers, which also sets out that solar PV installation is high-risk construction work, meaning a safe work method statement (SWMS) has to be prepared before the job starts.
Falls from height carry their own duty. SafeWork NSW's rooftop solar findings report and its options paper on falls from heights both point to the same hierarchy of control: work from the ground or solid construction first, then fall prevention devices, then a work positioning system, before anything else is considered. For live electrical equipment generally, the Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 sets out that unsafe equipment must be isolated and can't be reconnected until a competent person has checked it. Rules and the regulator administering them differ by state and territory, so what applies in Queensland or New South Wales isn't automatically word for word what applies elsewhere.
What licensing and accreditation duties sit alongside WHS duties?
WHS duties sit next to, not instead of, licensing and accreditation duties, and a solar installer who treats accreditation as a formality is carrying more risk than they realise. South Australia's Consumer and Business Services guide for solar panel installers says a business that sells solar panel systems including installation must be licensed, and that battery installation must be completed by a registered electrician.
Many solar businesses run on one accredited installer carrying the licence that every job, every rebate, and every certificate depends on. That's a business-critical fact, not paperwork to file and forget, because the day that one person is sick, booked out, or leaves, the business has no way to legally finish the job in front of it. This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.
How does crew capacity affect a solar installer's WHS duties?
An exhausted installer or an overloaded crew is a WHS risk on a roof, not just a wellbeing issue, and it sits inside the officer's duty too. Queensland's solar farms code of practice says officers, such as company directors, have a duty to exercise due diligence to make sure the business actually complies with the law, not just that a folder of policies exists somewhere.
This is where the owner's own data first approach matters more than a checklist. Knowing, job by job, who was on site, what accreditation that person held, what the site risk scan found before the ladder went up, and how many hours the crew had already worked that week, tells you where the real risk sits before it turns into an incident.
AI agents, software that does a job the way you would, with your own prices, wording and rules, can take on the non-billable side of this: logging the site scan, flagging when a job needs the accredited installer rather than whoever's free, and keeping the SWMS and certificate paperwork moving without it falling on the busiest person in the business. AI agents don't replace the risk assessment, but they can make sure the record of it exists every time, not just when someone remembers.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Guide to managing the risks of rooftop solar installation work, Safe Work Australia's overview of PCBU duties for solar installers.
- Domestic roof spaces, WorkSafe Queensland on de-energising before roof access.
- Construction and operation of solar farms code of practice, falling object controls, manual task risk assessment and officer due diligence.
- Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021, primary duty of care for electrical safety.
- Work health and safety requirements for Solar PV installers, roof isolation and SWMS for high-risk work.
- Rooftop Solar Installation Safety 2022 Phase 2, SafeWork NSW findings on falls and SWMS for solar work.
- Guide for solar panel installers, licensing for selling and installing, and battery registered electrician rule.
- Reducing falls from heights in the construction industry, hierarchy of fall controls.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts from the owner's own job and crew data through the Trade Business Intelligence, not from a generic WHS checklist. For a solar installer that means looking at which jobs actually needed the accredited installer, how the site risk scan was recorded before the ladder went up, and how stretched the crew was in the weeks a mistake happened. Greg Allan has sat with installers who've said, “I'm the only accredited solar installer in my business,” and that single sentence usually explains more about the real risk than any audit does. The how of fixing it, built around the owner's own numbers, is worked through inside the Academy, among members who are open minded, innovative and willing to share, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member who puts their data into it.
Looking for a business coach who starts from your numbers? Solar Business Coach or every answer for solar installers.
