Production Vendors, Suppliers, Security, and other businesses that work on live music events

This section contains guidance for businesses (other than promoters and venues) working on live music events.  It should be read together with the Guidance on Resources for the Live Music Sector.  If you do not operate your own business and you work on live events as an employee or contractor there is guidance for you HERE.

If you are a business providing equipment, staff or services to live music events, you are considered to be a ‘PCBU’ or ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ and as such you have a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) to take steps to manage the risks of sexual harassment, both in your work generally, and also in connection with each live event.

WORKING WITH OTHERS ON AN EVENT / OVERLAPPING DUTUES

The law says that PCBUs have a duty of care with respect to those matters over which they have control and influence.  Promoters and venues have overlapping areas of control and influence, and therefore responsibility, over live music events.

If you are a business engaged by a promoter and/or venue to provide services, it’s likely you will be working within an overall health and safety framework defined by the promoter and/or venue and your role in the event will be defined by contract.

However you still have a duty to manage risks in connection with matters over which you have control or influence.  This is likely to include at least the people, equipment and services that you bring to a live event.  The law also obliges you to cooperate and coordinate with the promoter, venue and any other businesses working on the event to determine who will do what to manage the risks of sexual harassment across the event as a whole.

For example:

  • the security firm contracted by the venue employs the security staff and is responsible for each of those staff – both their own safety and how their actions impact others at the event

  • the production company arranging staging, lighting and sound may employ or contract the operators, crew and other workers that support the production.  In that situation the production company is responsible for the crew that it brings on to the event – both their safety and how their actions impact others at the event

You can read about the measures that promoters and venues could put in place to manage the risks of sexual harm at an event HERE. Some of these measures may involve cooperation and coordination with you as a supplier or contractor to the event.  You can also play a part in preventing sexual harm across your business and workplace generally, using the foundational and other resources linked below.

FOUNDATIONAL RESOURCES

In addition to planning for specific events, production vendors, suppliers, security and other businesses that work on live music events can implement safety measures across their business and workplaces generally.  WorkSafe guidance requires all PCBUs to have a clear policy on preventing and responding to sexual harassment.  You may also want to have a Code of Conduct to ‘set the tone’ for how you work with others and your expectations of them, and to act as a tool to have conversations about inappropriate behaviour.  These are documents you can adopt and use even if you are a sole trader or a small business.  You can read more about these documents and access downloadable templates here:

You can also undertake training for yourself and your workers in preventing and responding to sexual harm.

 

OTHER RESOURCES