If you’ve spent the last year trying to keep up with new silica exposure rules in NSW, another register can feel like one obligation too many.
Here’s the short answer: if your business directs or allows workers to carry out high-risk processing of crystalline silica, the NSW Silica Worker Register almost certainly applies to you.
Since 1 October 2025, SafeWork NSW has required employers, known as Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs), to register these workers within 28 days of them starting that work.
This guide cuts through the regulation to explain who the Silica Worker Register applies to, what counts as high-risk processing, what information you need to provide, and what happens if you don’t comply.
What is the NSW Silica Worker Register?
Does the Silica Worker Register apply to your business?
What counts as high-risk silica processing?
What information do you need to provide?
What are the deadlines and exemptions?
What happens if you don’t register your workers?
How registration connects to your other silica obligations
Common NSW Silica Worker Register questions
Get your business compliant
A summary of who the Silica Worker Register applies to
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What is the NSW Silica Worker Register?
The annual number of certified silicosis cases in NSW rose from 9 in 2015-16 to 107 in 2019-20, a sharp enough increase to make tracking at-risk workers a genuine priority.
Which is just one of the reasons why the Silica Worker Register (SWR) now exists: a digital system run by SafeWork NSW that tracks workers exposed to high-risk crystalline silica processing.
It launched on 1 October 2025 under the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Silica Worker Register) Regulation 2025. Its purpose is to help identify workers who need health monitoring, so early signs of disease can be caught before serious damage is done.
Does the Silica Worker Register apply to your business?
The register applies to any PCBU that directs or allows workers to carry out high-risk processing of a crystalline silica substance (CSS) in NSW. According to SafeWork NSW, this includes businesses across construction, demolition, mining, quarrying, tunnelling, stone masonry, stone fabrication, manufacturing and foundries.
A few details affect exactly how the obligation falls on your business:
- Subcontractors, not principal contractors, register their own workers. If you’re a principal contractor on a construction site, you don’t register a subcontractor’s workers. The subcontractor directing that work is responsible for their own team.
- Interstate workers are covered, too. If a worker travels into NSW to carry out high-risk processing, they must still be registered.
- Each worker is registered once per employer. You don’t need to re-register a worker if their site location changes, or if they work across multiple sites.
If you’re unsure whether your business is covered, the safest approach is to assume it applies and confirm through a proper risk assessment.
What counts as high-risk silica processing?
Processing a crystalline silica substance means work like cutting, drilling, grinding or polishing that releases fine, breathable silica dust into the air. This dust is known as respirable crystalline silica, or RCS.
Processing only becomes ‘high risk’ once a risk assessment shows it’s reasonably likely to harm someone’s health. SafeWork NSW outlines what PCBUs must consider when making that assessment, including:
- The type of processing involved, such as cutting, grinding or tunnelling
- The form and concentration of crystalline silica in the material
- How often and how long workers are likely to be exposed
- Whether silica dust levels are likely to exceed half the legal workplace exposure limit
- Any past air or health monitoring results, or previous cases of illness linked to silica dust at the workplace
If you cannot confidently determine whether a task is high risk, you must treat it as high risk until a proper assessment proves otherwise.
What information do you need to provide?
Registering a worker on the SWR means submitting both business and individual worker details through the SafeWork NSW portal. Getting this ready in advance makes the registration window far easier to meet.
| Business details | Worker details |
| PCBU name and ABN | Name, phone number, email address and date of birth |
| Contact name, phone number and email address | The date they commenced high-risk processing work |
| Registered business address | The site address where they carry out that work |
| Workers’ compensation policy number, if applicable | Whether the work relates to tunnel construction |
| Industry type | Whether a provider other than icare is engaged for their health monitoring |
PCBUs with a large number of workers to register can request a bulk upload template through the SafeWork NSW portal, which is a more efficient option than entering each worker individually.
What are the deadlines and exemptions?
Workers must be registered within 28 days of commencing high-risk silica processing work. This deadline applies from the date the work actually starts, not from when the business first becomes aware of the requirement.
A few exemptions and timing rules are worth noting:
- Businesses regulated under the Coal Industry Act 2001 don’t need to notify their workers of the SWR.
- Only work from 1 October 2025 onward counts. Workers who stopped high-risk processing before that date don’t need to be registered.
- You can’t register in advance. Notifications can only be made after high-risk processing has actually commenced, not for work planned at a future date.
- Each worker is registered once per employer. If a worker changes jobs, their new employer is responsible for registering them again under that employer’s profile.
What happens if you don’t register your workers?
Failing to notify the register or providing false or misleading information carries real financial consequences alongside the compliance risk.
According to the Civil Contractors Federation NSW, corporations can face penalties of up to $150,000 for failing to provide required information, and fines exceeding $70,000 apply for false or misleading submissions.
Beyond the financial penalty, registration delays mean at-risk workers miss out on timely health monitoring. Since RCS exposure often shows no early symptoms, that delay can be the difference between catching a problem early and a worker receiving a serious diagnosis years later.
| “Late registration means a worker goes without the monitoring they’re entitled to for however long the delay lasts. That’s the real cost, well before any fine comes into it.” Kate O’Connor, National Program Manager, Munro Respiratory Services |
How registration connects to your other silica obligations
The Silica Worker Register is one part of a broader set of duties under the NSW WHS Regulation, and it doesn’t replace the others. Registering a worker is a notification step, not a substitute for managing the risk itself.
PCBUs with workers undertaking high-risk processing must also:
- Provide health monitoring. Workers identified as at risk must be offered regular screening, which can include a medical questionnaire, respiratory function tests or imaging.
- Maintain a silica risk control plan. This must be developed with the workers involved and include a risk assessment for each task.
- Keep workers informed and trained. Workers who process or are exposed to silica dust generally need approved silica awareness training to understand the risks and how to work safely. Munro Respiratory Services runs this training on-site or remotely.
For a closer look at who specifically needs silica awareness training, or if your team also needs respirator fit testing alongside registration and training, Munro Respiratory Services makes it simple to stay on top of all three.
Common NSW Silica Worker Register questions
Does the Silica Worker Register apply to workers who are only near silica dust, not processing it themselves?
No. Only workers who personally undertake high-risk processing of a crystalline silica substance need to be notified to the register.
Workers simply working nearby still need information, instruction and may need health monitoring, but they aren’t registered under this specific requirement.
Is the Silica Worker Register data made public?
No. Information submitted to the register is not publicly available. It may be shared with other government agencies, including icare, as permitted under NSW privacy legislation.
Does being added to the register mean a worker has been harmed by silica exposure?
No. Registration is a preventative measure to track and ensure health monitoring is offered to at-risk workers. It doesn’t mean a worker has already been exposed to dangerous levels of RCS or will go on to develop an illness.
Can I register a worker before they start high-risk processing work?
No. Notifications can only be submitted after the work has commenced. The register doesn’t accept future-dated notifications.
Get your business compliant
Registering your workers is one part of meeting your silica obligations in NSW. The other essential piece is making sure your team understands the risks and works safely around crystalline silica every day.
Munro Respiratory Services delivers approved silica awareness training across NSW, on-site or remotely, with training records provided on completion. Tell us how many people need training, and we will arrange a session that suits your team.
