The First 24 Hours After a WorkSafe Inspector Leaves: What I'd Do If It Were My Business
You've just had a WorkSafe inspector walk through your site. Maybe they left with a polite nod and no notice. Maybe they handed you an Improvement Notice on the way out. Maybe they said the words nobody wants to hear: "I'll be in touch."
And now you're standing in your office, the door closed, trying to work out what just happened. Your team is asking questions. Your phone is buzzing. Somewhere in the back of your mind a quiet voice is asking: did I just make it worse?
I've been on the other side of that desk. I spent years as a WorkSafe Victoria Inspector and issued 99 Improvement Notices during that time. I know exactly what the inspector is doing right now, because I used to do it myself. They're not back at the office writing up a prosecution. Not yet. They're writing a field report, checking what they observed against the Act, and deciding how much further to take it.
What you do in the next 24 hours shapes that decision more than almost anything else.
Here's what I'd do if it were my business.
What's Actually Happening on the Other Side
Before I get into the steps, it helps to understand what you're dealing with.
WorkSafe inspectors don't show up fishing. They're there for a reason: a complaint, a notifiable incident, a proactive inspection in a priority industry, or because your sector is on their campaign list that quarter. Whatever brought them in, they arrived with a framework in their head called the Enforcement Decision-Making Model. It's how they decide whether to give you advice, issue a notice, or escalate to investigation.
The model weighs a few things: the seriousness of the risk, your history, your attitude on the day, and what evidence they gathered. That last one is important. Inspectors write detailed field notes during and immediately after a visit. They photograph. They ask questions that seem casual but are carefully chosen. By the time they're back in the car, most of the decision is already made.
That's the whole game. And three steps get you there.
Secure Your Documentation Before Memory Fades
The most common mistake I saw as an inspector wasn't dishonesty. It was drift. A week later, the story of what happened had shifted, not because anyone was lying, but because people reconstruct memory around what they wish they'd done.
Within the first few hours after the inspector leaves, write down everything you can remember. Who was there. What rooms they entered. What they looked at. What questions they asked. What you said. What your staff said. What they photographed.
If the inspector left a site entry report, read it immediately and cross-check it against your own notes. These reports are legally required and they become the backbone of any future action. If something in the report doesn't match what you remember, note it now, not in three weeks when you're being asked for a statement.
Pull together every document that relates to what they looked at. Training records. Risk assessments. Toolbox talk notes. Maintenance logs. Supplier safety data sheets. Contractor inductions. Whatever applies. Don't edit them. Don't "tidy them up." Just get them in one folder so you know what you have, and what you don't.
This matters because of something most business owners don't realise: if WorkSafe decides to investigate, they can issue a Section 100 notice requiring you to produce documents. If you produced a document that wasn't there on the day, that's its own problem. If you produce what you had, honestly and completely, you're in a defensible position.
The goal in the first hours isn't to build a case. It's to freeze the evidence of what you actually had in place, before anyone's memory starts rewriting history.
Read the Notice Against the Act, Don't Start Fixing Things Randomly
I cannot overstate how often I watched duty holders make their situation worse in the 48 hours after a visit by doing what felt like the right thing.
They'd panic-buy signage. Rope off areas that didn't need roping off. Send workers home. Pull equipment out of service that was perfectly safe. Draft a brand new policy overnight and email it to their team at midnight. All of it well-meaning. Almost none of it addressing the actual breach the inspector was concerned about.
Here's the thing about an Improvement Notice: the compliance action listed on it is not prescriptive. The inspector has given you an example of how to comply, but as a duty holder you're expected to determine what's reasonably practicable for your business, not just follow the example. That means you have options. But you can only use those options well if you actually understand what the notice says.
Read it slowly. Twice.
Identify the section of the OHS Act or Regulations the inspector says you've breached. Read that section of the legislation itself. Not a summary, not a consultant's blog post, the actual provision. Then look at what the inspector has written as their reasonable grounds for belief. This is where they describe what they saw that led them to form the view a breach occurred.
Now match that against your documentation from Step 1. Is the breach they're describing something you had no system for? Or something you had a system for, but it wasn't being followed on the day? Or something you had a system for, and it was being followed, but the inspector formed a different view? Each of those is a different conversation, with a different response.
If the notice is vague, or if the compliance action would genuinely require you to do something that isn't reasonably practicable, you have a right to apply to WorkSafe's Internal Review Unit. The IRU is independent from the inspectorate and they do set notices aside. I've seen it happen, on notices I'd written. But you have to act within strict timeframes, usually 14 days, and you need to submit evidence, not emotion.
Don't appeal as a reflex. Don't comply as a reflex either. Read carefully, match against reality, and decide which response the evidence actually supports.
Get Experienced Eyes on the Notice Within 72 Hours
Most Victorian notices give you around two weeks to comply. That sounds like plenty of time until you try to do it properly.
You need time to assess, time to consult with your workers (which the Act requires), time to implement controls, time to train people on the changes, time to document everything, and time to notify WorkSafe that you've complied. Two weeks disappears fast. If you need more time, you can apply for an extension through WorkSafe, but you must submit that request before the compliance deadline passes.
This is the point at which a lot of business owners either freeze or overreact. Freezing means the deadline passes without compliance, and you're now facing a non-compliance offence. Overreacting means spending money on fixes that don't address the actual breach, while the clock runs out on the one that does.
The most useful thing you can do on day two or three is get someone who understands the enforcement process to look at the notice with fresh eyes. Not a generic safety consultant selling you a template library. Not a lawyer quoting you $8,000 to write a letter. Someone who can tell you, in plain English, what the inspector is likely to accept as closure, what evidence you need to provide, and whether the notice is worth challenging.
If that person was once on the other side of the enforcement decision, even better. Because the question that matters isn't "what does the Act say." It's "what will WorkSafe accept as evidence that you've complied?"
That's the question I answer every week for the businesses who call me after an inspection. Most need a site assessment to understand the full context. A free 20-minute call helps you get initial direction on what's involved.
What Happens If You Do This Well
The honest answer is: probably nothing. And that's the win.
When duty holders respond to a notice properly (documenting the evidence, addressing the actual breach, consulting their workers, implementing real controls, and providing clear proof of closure) the notice gets closed out, the file goes quiet, and the business moves on. No prosecution. No fine. No court. No public record summary on WorkSafe's website.
The notice becomes a footnote instead of a turning point.
What Happens If You Don't
The incident already happened. What you do next determines everything.
Non-compliance with an Improvement Notice is an indictable offence under the OHS Act. In the case of a natural person, the penalty is not more than $101,755. In the case of a body corporate, it's not more than $508,775. Beyond the financial penalty, non-compliance triggers a comprehensive investigation by WorkSafe's enforcement team. What started as a notice becomes a formal investigation, which may result in prosecution.
Either way, non-compliance sits on your record as a serious breach. Future notices compound the problem. And if a serious injury, incident, or fatality occurs later (especially one related to the same hazard area), regulators and courts will look at your history of non-compliance as evidence of how you manage safety.
In 2025, WorkSafe successfully prosecuted 137 duty holders, with more than $17 million in penalties. Manufacturing and transport were both in the top three sectors. None of those businesses planned to be there. Most had a moment, early on, where a different response would have changed the trajectory.
You're in that moment right now.
RAS-OHS Can Help You Understand Your Position
A free 20-minute call with me helps you understand where you stand, what effort is required to achieve compliance, and whether the notice is worth challenging. Most notices require a site assessment to get the full context right, but that conversation starts here.
I'll be direct about what you're facing, what's reasonably practicable for your business, and what the next step should be. No obligation to continue beyond the call.
Book a 20-Minute CallIf you want to understand the broader context of responding to a notice, read my guide to WorkSafe Improvement Notices in Victoria. For businesses that need ongoing support with compliance systems and training, OHS compliance training and consulting helps teams understand their obligations and build systems that hold up under scrutiny.
Dhawal Patel is a former WorkSafe Victoria Inspector and ISO 45001 Lead Auditor. He founded RAS-OHS to help Victorian businesses respond to WorkSafe Improvement Notices, investigate incidents, and build OHS systems that actually hold up under scrutiny.
