Somewhere between the fire extinguisher and the first aid kit, a question tends to nag at Australian employers: are we supposed to have an EpiPen on hand? A staff member mentions a nut allergy, a customer gets stung by a bee in the car park, and suddenly ‘she’ll be right’ doesn’t feel like a plan. So let’s answer it properly — what the rules actually say, when your workplace genuinely needs an adrenaline device, and what to do once you have one.

This is part of our series on the changing world of adrenaline devices. For the big picture see what the 2026 ASCIA anaphylaxis update means for first aiders, and for the how-to on the specific devices, our guides to the Jext auto-injector and neffy nasal spray. If you want the nuts and bolts of buying a shared device, we cover that in can our workplace keep an EpiPen for general use.

The short answer

For most Australian workplaces, keeping an adrenaline auto-injector is not a blanket legal requirement — but it is often strongly recommended, and sometimes clearly expected, once you have done a first aid risk assessment. Work health and safety law does not hand you a checklist that says ‘every office must have an EpiPen’. What it does say is that you must provide first aid that is adequate for the specific risks of your workplace. If anaphylaxis is a foreseeable risk where you work, an auto-injector belongs in the kit and someone needs to know how to use it. If it genuinely isn’t, it may not. The trick is knowing which camp you’re in — and that is a decision you make on purpose, not by accident.

What the law actually says

First aid in Australian workplaces is governed by work health and safety (WHS) law and, in NSW, the First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice (based on the national model code). It requires a person conducting a business or undertaking (a PCBU — in plain English, the employer) to ensure workers have access to first aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders that suit the nature of the work and its hazards.

Crucially, the Code of Practice expressly allows for an EpiPen. It states that ‘workplaces may consider including an asthma-relieving inhaler and a spacer to treat asthma attacks and epinephrine auto-injector for the treatment of anaphylaxis or severe allergies’, adding that these ‘should be stored according to the manufacturers’ instructions and first aiders should be provided with appropriate training’. So keeping an adrenaline auto-injector in your workplace kit is squarely supported — the ‘may consider’ simply means it’s driven by your risk assessment rather than mandated for everyone. Skipping that assessment is the real mistake: if anaphylaxis is an obvious hazard in your setting and you did nothing, ‘no one told us to’ is a thin defence.

The real test: your first aid risk assessment

Whether you need an auto-injector comes down to a first aid needs assessment. You are essentially asking: how likely is a severe allergic reaction here, and how fast could help arrive if one happened? The factors that push the answer toward ‘yes, have one’ include:

• The nature of the work and who’s present — do you serve food, handle allergens, or have members of the public and children on site?
• Known allergies among staff, students or regular visitors.
• Exposure to insect stings — bees and wasps are a leading anaphylaxis trigger, so outdoor and grounds work counts.
• Distance from help — the longer an ambulance takes to reach you, the more the first few minutes fall to your own people.
• Numbers and turnover — the more people through your doors, the higher the odds someone has a serious allergy you don’t know about.

Anaphylaxis can strike someone with no known allergy and no warning, so a ‘no one here is allergic’ shrug isn’t the end of the assessment. But the assessment is what turns a vague worry into a clear, defensible decision — and it’s worth writing down.

Workplaces where an auto-injector usually makes sense

Some settings tip the scales almost every time. If you run any of the following on the Mid North Coast, an adrenaline device and trained staff are well worth having:

• Cafes, restaurants, bakeries and food businesses — food is the most common anaphylaxis trigger, and you are serving the public.
• Early learning centres and schools — anaphylaxis management is part of the deal, and staff training is expected.
• Sporting groups and community groups — think a footy club canteen or a community hall event, often with kids and often a fair way from a hospital.
• Events, markets and festivals — big crowds, food stalls, and outdoor stings.
• Farms, landscaping, trades and remote worksites — insect exposure plus long ambulance response times.

Offices and low-risk indoor workplaces sit at the other end. Even then, plenty choose to keep a general-use device and train a few first aiders, simply because the downside of not having one is so steep and the cost of having one is so modest.

Prescribed or general-use: which does a workplace need?

There are two ways adrenaline ends up on site. The first is an individual’s own prescribed device — a staff member or student who carries their EpiPen (with an ASCIA action plan) and lets you know where it lives. The second is a general-use device that the business buys and keeps in the kit for anyone who needs it in an emergency.

EpiPen is a Schedule 3 (pharmacist-only) medicine in Australia, which means a workplace can buy one from a pharmacy without a prescription for general use. There’s a bit more to it than grabbing one off the shelf, though — we walk through the rules, the ASCIA general-use plan and the practicalities in can our workplace keep an EpiPen for general use.

Having the device isn’t enough — someone has to know how to use it

An auto-injector in a cupboard that nobody can confidently use is a false sense of security. The good news is that adrenaline devices are designed for ordinary people, and anyone can legally step in to help in an emergency — Good Samaritan protections mean a person acting in good faith to help someone in genuine danger is not going to be punished for it. The better news is that a couple of hours of hands-on practice turns ‘I think I’d panic’ into ‘I’ve done this’.

It also pays to know that the device you grab might not be the one you trained on years ago. Australia now has EpiPen and the newer Jext auto-injector, plus the needle-free neffy nasal spray — while Anapen has been progressively discontinued. They don’t all fire the same way, which is exactly why refreshing your training matters. As a rule of thumb, first aid qualifications are renewed every three years and CPR every twelve months.

Worried about jabbing the wrong person or the wrong spot? That fear is common and it’s worth defusing — we cover it in what happens if you give adrenaline by mistake. Short version: hesitation is the bigger danger.

Storage, expiry and upkeep

Adrenaline is temperature-sensitive. Keep devices at room temperature (below 25°C), out of direct sun, and never in the glovebox of a ute baking in the Port Macquarie summer — heat degrades the medicine, and freezing ruins it too. Store the kit somewhere obvious and known to staff, not locked in a manager’s drawer. Check expiry dates on a schedule (adrenaline devices typically last a year or two), replace before they lapse, and keep the solution clear — discard anything cloudy or discoloured. Assigning one person to own this quietly prevents the classic ‘expired six months ago’ discovery at the worst possible moment.

Why this matters on the Mid North Coast

Out here, help isn’t always minutes away. An ambulance reaching a worksite outside Taree, a cafe in Port Macquarie or a community event at Forster/Tuncurry can take longer than it would in a capital city, and anaphylaxis can become life-threatening in that window. That’s the whole case for local workplaces being ready: in those first crucial minutes, your trained staff are the emergency response. Preparing for it isn’t red tape — it’s the difference between a frightening story with a happy ending and a tragedy.

Get your team ready with hands-on training

Reading about auto-injectors is a fine start, but knowing and doing are worlds apart. When a customer or workmate can’t breathe, confidence comes from having physically practised — not from having skimmed a policy once. Information is the map; hands-on training is actually knowing the road.

That’s what our nationally recognised first aid and CPR training delivers. Our Provide First Aid course covers anaphylaxis recognition and adrenaline device use with real practice, and if you’re local you can join a first aid course in Port Macquarie or first aid training in Taree.

So don’t leave it on the to-do list. Check our upcoming course dates and enrol in a course today. Want your whole team trained together? Get in touch about workplace or group training and we’ll come to you and tailor it to your site’s risks.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a legal requirement to have an EpiPen at work in Australia?

There is no blanket law requiring every workplace to hold an adrenaline auto-injector. WHS law requires you to provide first aid appropriate to your workplace’s risks, and the First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice expressly says workplaces may consider including an epinephrine auto-injector for anaphylaxis or severe allergies, stored per the manufacturer’s instructions and with trained first aiders. So the requirement is really to assess your risk and equip accordingly — for many food, education, community and outdoor settings, that points to having one.

Can a workplace buy an EpiPen without a prescription?

Yes. EpiPen is a Schedule 3 (pharmacist-only) medicine, so a business can buy one from a pharmacy without a prescription for general use. There are sensible steps around training, storage and an ASCIA general-use plan — see our guide to keeping an EpiPen for general use.

Who is allowed to give an EpiPen at work?

Anyone can, in an emergency. Adrenaline devices are designed for use by people without medical training, and Good Samaritan protections cover someone acting in good faith to help a person in genuine danger. In practice you want trained first aiders who have handled a device and know the signs of anaphylaxis, so the response is calm and correct.

What if we give adrenaline and the person wasn’t having anaphylaxis?

Giving adrenaline to someone who turns out not to need it rarely causes serious harm, while withholding it from someone who does can be fatal — so if in doubt, give it. We explain the effects and the ‘when in doubt’ rule in what happens if you give adrenaline by mistake.

How often does workplace first aid training need renewing?

As a general guide, first aid qualifications are renewed every three years and CPR every twelve months. Regular refreshers matter even more now that several different adrenaline devices are in circulation and they are not all used the same way.