Disaster Resilience

A: You must take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who might be affected by your acts or omissions, and cooperate with your employer’s safety measures.

A: An employer may stand down employees without pay during a stoppage of work for which the employer is not responsible (e.g., the workplace is destroyed by a natural disaster) when employees cannot be usefully employed. If this issue arises, make sure you check your employment contract or a relevant enterprise agreement.

A: Before standing down employees, employers should consider:

• whether employees can work from home or from another safe location, if their role permits it;
• whether there are other tasks or roles that could be temporarily performed safely and suitably, or whether work could be undertaken in a different way;
• whether employees could take any accrued but unused annual leave or long service leave.



An employee who may otherwise be stood down can request to take the leave they are entitled to.

A: If you or your family are affected by a disaster, you may be eligible for several types of leave:

• Paid personal or carer’s leave if you are unwell or providing care or support to an immediate family or household member who requires care or support because they are unwell or because of an unexpected emergency affecting them.
• Unpaid carer’s leave when you have exhausted your paid personal or carer’s leave.
• Compassionate leave if an immediate family or household member suffers a life-threatening illness or injury or passes away.
• If you are engaged in eligible emergency management activities, such as volunteering with emergency services during a disaster, you may be entitled to community service leave.

A: Employers must provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable at all times, including during and after a disaster.

This includes providing and maintaining safe systems of work, safe workplaces and adequate welfare facilities, and providing the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for employees to perform their work safely.



This duty also applies to independent contractors engaged by an employer and to the independent contractor's employees.

A: Employers must first try to eliminate health and safety risks. This may mean stopping work where hazards are extreme. Most of the time, it will involve adjusting work in some way.

Where it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate a risk, for instance, because a disaster or climate change has created ongoing or heightened risks and work needs to be done, the employer must reduce the risk as far as reasonably practicable. This may involve working with modifications or with controls in place.

In deciding what is reasonably practicable, an employer will consider the likelihood of the hazard or risk arising or continuing, the potential severity of harm, what is known about hazards and possible controls, the availability and suitability of controls, and the costs.

A: Common hazards include unstable structures, live or damaged electrical or gas systems, asbestos and other hazardous materials, contaminated water and sewage, poor air quality (smoke and dust), weather extremes, and fatigue and psychosocial risks.

A: Depending on the nature of the disaster and its impact on the workplace, employers may need to take specific steps to ensure workers' health and safety before they return to work. In the context of a disaster, examples of such steps might include restricting access to unsafe areas, arranging structural checks, isolating or disconnecting services, using licensed asbestos removalists, drying and disinfecting flood-affected areas, setting up exclusion zones, providing protective equipment, rotating tasks, and managing fatigue.

A: If it is reasonably practicable, employers must consult with workers and Health and Safety Representatives on matters such as identifying and assessing hazards or risks, making decisions about controls, and proposing changes that may affect employees' health and safety.



Employers must share information, and workers must have a chance to give their views on the matters. The employer must take employees' views into account.

A: Stay safe and avoid any unsafe structures. Photograph any damage and record what is damaged or lost. If possible, contact your insurer before starting clean-up or repairs.

A: You will likely need a building permit for construction, demolition, or removal of a building used as a home. Before applying for a building permit, you may choose to appoint a registered building surveyor, building practitioner, endorsed building engineer or architect to apply for the permit on your behalf.



You may also need a planning permit for land use or development (construction works) if your local planning scheme requires one for your land or the proposed works. Check with your local Council for guidance on whether a planning permit is required.

A: A building permit will not be required if the building works are carried out under a building order or an emergency order (and the order does not specifically require a building permit to be obtained).

If your principal place of residence has been destroyed by a climate event (i.e., fire, flood, wind, storm), there is an exemption from obtaining building and planning permits for constructing temporary accommodation.

Minor works and routine maintenance to restore an existing building usually do not require a planning permit unless specifically required by a local planning scheme.

A: Whether a planning permit is required depends on where your home is located and the planning controls that apply to it.



Generally, any works to homes in heritage areas or subject to climate risks will require a planning permit for most demolition, repair or rebuild works.

A: Urgent repairs include serious flood, storm or fire damage, as well as any fault or damage that makes

your home unsafe.

For the full list of urgent repairs, visit the Consumer Affairs Victoria website at consumer.vic.gov.au/urgent repairs.

Notify your landlord or agent in writing as soon as you become aware that urgent repairs are needed.

If you have taken reasonable steps (i.e., followed up on the request and used the emergency contact number provided by the landlord or agent) and the landlord or agent fails to carry out the requested urgent repairs, you can arrange them yourself.

If this happens, the landlord must repay the reasonable cost of the repairs, up to $2,500. If the repairs will cost more than $2,500 or you cannot afford them up front, you can apply to VCAT to require the landlord to complete the urgent repairs. Speak to Allied Justice if you want to do this.



If you carry out the urgent repairs yourself, keep receipts and give the landlord 7 days’ written notice of the repairs and the cost. If you are not reimbursed within 7 days, you can apply to Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria for assistance.

A: If you need a non-urgent repair and can continue to live safely on your property in the interim, you should notify your landlord of the repair.

If the landlord does not fix the issue within 14 days, you can apply to Consumer Affairs Victoria for an inspection and report, to Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria for assistance, or directly to VCAT to require the landlord to complete the non-urgent repairs.



Keep records of what is damaged, how it was caused, and your attempts to ask the landlord to fix the issue.

A: If your home is unfit for human habitation (e.g., its structural integrity is compromised, it is contaminated, or you are likely to be injured) or destroyed, either totally or to the point of being unsafe, you can end your lease.

To do this, you must first give your landlord a notice of intention to vacate, stating that you intend to move out immediately. If you do so, you should not be required to pay ongoing rent or a lease break fee.

If the house is still habitable but you want to leave, you can give a standard 28-day notice of intention to vacate. However, the landlord may seek to recover a lease break fee. You can also negotiate an agreement with your landlord to end your lease. In this case, ensure that any agreement states you are not required to pay break-lease fees.

A: Yes. Similar rights apply to both urgent and non-urgent repairs and to lease terminations, but there are some important differences.



If you live in a boarding house or caravan park and there is no immediate danger to your health or safety, but you can still use other facilities in the communal areas, you might not be able to organise repairs yourself and recover their costs. If you decide to terminate your lease and want to leave before the date specified in the notice of intention to vacate, you will still need to pay rent.