Who decides which office chairs an office buys?

The duty sits on the business

In New South Wales the work environment is governed by an approved code, Managing the work environment and facilities, approved under section 274 of the state's Work Health and Safety Act. It is based on the national model code that Safe Work Australia develops, and it commenced on 1 January 2012.

The clause that decides this page's question reads as a duty on the business: workstations must be suitable for the person and the task, and the code's own example of how to meet that is adjustable workstations. The same requirement, in the words this page cites from the national model, puts the obligation on the provider of the workstation rather than on the person sitting at it. So the answer to who decides is the business conducting the undertaking: the order is its to place, and the duty is its to answer for.

Read as a buying rule, the clause sets what the choice has to be measured against. Suitability runs to the person and to the task, and an adjustable workstation is the code's own illustration of how a single purchase can be made to suit both.

The workers have to be asked

It is a requirement of the code that workers are consulted when a workstation assessment is carried out, in the same clause as the duty itself.

The consultation is not a courtesy note. Each person conducting a business or undertaking must consult, so far as is reasonably practicable, the workers who do work for it and whom a health and safety matter at work directly affects, or is likely to directly affect. Workers have to be given the chance to express their views and raise matters, contribute to the decision, and be told the outcome of the consultation their views fed into.

The code's consultation chapter also reaches the furniture around the workstation. The duty to consult expressly includes decisions about the adequacy of facilities for workers' welfare, and about monitoring conditions at the workplace, such as access, cleaning and maintenance. An office deciding how much room the lunch table needs is making exactly that kind of decision.

What the Code is in NSW

A code is not law in the abstract. To have legal effect in a jurisdiction, a model code of practice has to be approved as a code there, and while an approved code is not itself law, it is admissible in court proceedings: a court may accept it as evidence of what is known about a particular hazard, risk or control, and draw on it in deciding what was reasonably practicable in the circumstances. In most cases, following an approved code would achieve compliance with the duties in a jurisdiction's work health and safety Act and regulations.

In New South Wales the status was tightened on 1 July 2026. With the commencement of section 26A of the state's Work Health and Safety Act on that date, codes became the minimum performance standards a business is expected to comply with: a business must either comply with the code or manage the hazard or risk in a way that gives an equivalent or higher standard than the code. In SafeWork NSW's own words on the same page, should marks the standard a code requires, and the standard can only be left by doing at least as well. SafeWork NSW can also lean on a code from the outside: an inspector may refer to a code of practice when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice.

One office, furnished by the Code

The code carries its own furnished example of an office, and it is the plainest picture of the duty being met. It is a three-storey building in a central business district, with every floor in use. In it, every worker is provided with a fully adjustable office chair. The kitchen area is furnished differently on purpose: its chairs are comfortable and non-adjustable.

Read as a buying rule, the example shows two kinds of chair in one office: a fully adjustable chair for every worker, provided by the business, and comfortable chairs that do not adjust in the kitchen. The example is the code's illustration, not a photograph of any real office; the point is the shape of the duty, not the store list.

The chair itself, which adjustments it has and how a person sets them, is not this page's subject.

The Code’s own dates

1. 1 Jan 2012

   The NSW approved code of practice, Managing the work environment and facilities, commences.

2. Aug 2019

   The version SafeWork NSW lists carries the date August 2019, based on the national model code.

3. Dec 2025

   The national model text this page cites for the same two clauses is the December 2025 edition.

4. 1 Jul 2026

   Section 26A commences in NSW: codes become minimum performance standards a business is expected to comply with, or to match with an equivalent or higher standard.