Merry Christmas and happy holiday season

It is that time of year again, when many of us wind down our business activities and prepare for a much-needed rest. The Health & Safety Handbook is no different. We will be clocking off on 5pm (AEDT) Tuesday 23 December and will be back online, keeping track of work health and safety law changes that affect you, from 9am (AEDT) Monday 5 January 2026.

Our Customer Service and Health & Safety Helpdesk will also be closed from 5pm (AEDT) Tuesday 23 December to 9am (AEDT) Monday 5 January 2026. You may still submit your queries to the helpdesk during the break and we will respond as soon as possible on our return.

Our weekly Health & Safety Bulletin will return on the week commencing 12 January 2026.

From all of us at the Health & Safety Handbook, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Wrapping-up 2025: Health & Safety Handbook highlights

In 2025, we had a huge year adding brand-new content and making updates to the Health & Safety Handbook to ensure you stayed on top of work health and safety law. Below are some of the highlights.

1. Important updates were made to 53 chapters. Our most visited chapter for the year was Children in the workplace.
2. 17 case law articles were produced to illustrate how the law is being applied in the courts. Our most popular case law this year was 'Employee dismissed for breach of drugs and alcohol policy ordered to be reinstated'.
3. 22 Q&As were published, answering questions sent by you to our helpdesk. This year's most popular Q&A was 'Who can seek a stop-bullying order in the Fair Work Commission?'.
4. More than 50 weekly bulletins were sent out to bring important news straight to you. Our most popular bulletin this year was 'Inadequate traffic management plan leads to pedestrian versus forklift incident'.

We look forward to bringing you more work health and safety news, updates and advice in 2026!