Control Hire’s Guide to the October 1, 2025 WHS Safety Regulation – New Silica Worker Register
On October 1, 2025, a new amendment to the NSW Work Health and Safety Regulation will take effect. It introduces a mandatory Silica Worker Register for all businesses conducting high-risk processing of crystalline silica substances (CSS).
This includes any mechanical task that disturbs materials with more than 1% crystalline silica — a common threshold exceeded in tunnelling, demolition, concrete works, and civil infrastructure.
If your business falls into this category, you must:
- Identify affected workers,
- Submit personal information (name, DOB, contact) to SafeWork NSW,
- Do so within 28 days of the work commencing,
- Comply with expanded requirements for monitoring, training, and exposure control.
Non-compliance is now a penalty offence under NSW law.
What Counts as High-Risk Work?
The regulation targets operations likely to generate airborne respirable crystalline silica at concentrations exceeding 0.025 mg/m³ (half the exposure standard). That includes:
- Cutting, drilling, sawing or polishing engineered stone
- Shotcreting in tunnels or shafts
- Crushing or handling demolition spoil
- Surface grinding, jackhammering or road cutting
If you’re unsure whether your task qualifies as high risk: the law requires you to assume it is high risk.
Why This Regulation Matters
The silica register is not an administrative formality, it’s an enforcement tool that allows SafeWork NSW and the Dust Diseases Authority to:
- Track exposure histories for individual workers,
- Detect unsafe work practices across the industry,
- Issue fines, stop-work notices, and prosecutions,
- Ensure employers maintain suitable engineering and health controls.
This is part of a broader shift toward treating silica exposure seriously: a long-latency hazard with irreversible health outcomes.
Control Hire Delivers Compliant Silica Dust Control Systems
Regulation now demands more than masks and warning signs. It requires certified systems that physically control airborne particulates. That’s where Control Hire is here to help.
We provide:
- Air Quality Management Plans (AQMPs) across entire projects or stages,
- Silica Dust Control Plans certified and ready for submission,
- Certified Temporary Ventilation Design including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFDs),
- Real-Time Silica Area Monitors and live reporting for area exposures,
- Personal Silica Monitoring including setup, collection and lab analysis,
- Industrial Air Scrubbers with 3-stage HEPA filtration,
- Cutting Stations for encapsulating hazardous zones,
- A range of Centrifugal and Axial Fans to control airflow
- Dust Cannons & Fog Lances to duppress airborne particules
- Fully Managed Installations, Commissioning & Maintenance, backed by WHS-aligned reporting.
Our systems are already active on high-risk tunnel, construction and excavation projects across Australia — proving compliance under real conditions.
Take Action Now
If you manage or contract silica-generating tasks in construction or infrastructure, this law applies to you. Avoid fines and protect your workforce with a verified, engineered control system.
Control Hire is ready to deliver a complete silica compliance package: fast.