General duties relating to health and safety: Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004

If you have one or more employees, you are an employer. An employer can be a:

• person
• company
• partnership, unincorporated association, franchising operation or not-for-profit organisation

Employers have a duty to protect the health and safety of employees while at work by providing and maintaining a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

Employers owe the same duty to independent contractors working at the workplace and contractors' employees, but only for matters over which the employer has, or should have, control.

Employers must eliminate risks or reduce risks as far as is reasonably practicable by:

• providing and maintaining safe plant so that all machinery, equipment and tools are suitable for their purpose, guarded where necessary and maintained in a safe condition
• arranging safe systems of work, for example, how work is organised, including work processes and safe operating procedures, work arrangements, the pace of work and procedures to prevent and manage fatigue, occupational stress and violence
• maintaining the workplace in a condition that is safe and without risks to health, including space, layout, security, lighting, ventilation and noise control
• putting in place procedures for the safe use, handling, storage and transport of plant and substances
• providing adequate facilities for the welfare of employees, such as drinking water, toilets, eating areas and first aid
• providing employees with the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for them to do their jobs safely and without risks to health

Employers must take whatever action is reasonably practicable to:

• monitor the health of employees – for example, collection and review of incident and injury data, regular hearing tests for employees in noisy environments and analysis of results
• monitor workplace conditions – for example, measuring air quality if work involves potential exposure to dust or fumes, monitoring workloads and fatigue
• provide information about health and safety in a way that is suitable for employees, both in terms of the language used and the style of presentation
• keep information and records on employees' health and safety
• provide employees with the names of people in the organisation they can contact to make an enquiry or complaint about health and safety
• employ or contract people with OHS qualifications to advise on employees' health and safety. For example, workplace circumstances may require a consultant hygienist to monitor lead levels or an ergonomist to advise on manual handling risks

Employers also have a duty to people who are not their employees. Employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure their business activities do not put the health and safety of members of the public at risk. This includes protecting visitors to a workplace, protecting the general public from construction or demolition work near roads and footpaths and preventing the emission of hazardous substances from a workplace. For example:

• people passing a building site should have protection from the risk of falling objects and from traffic entering or leaving the site
• visitors to a factory, including truck drivers making deliveries and customers, should have protection from exposure to hazardous areas or moving equipment
• patients, residents, relatives and visitors at a health care facility should have protection from infectious diseases
• a gardening business working in a public area such as a park should ensure members of the public are not exposed to risks such as being hit by falling branches when trimming trees or flying stones when cutting grass

Employers continue to have duties and must take every reasonable care to maintain a safe workplace, regardless of other parties such as contractors or building owners who have some management and control of the workplace.

Under the OHS Act, employers have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of their employees while at work. Employers may put in place procedures and work practices and provide information, training and supervision to meet that responsibility. Employees must cooperate with their employer's efforts by, for example:

• following the workplace safety policies and procedures
• attending health and safety training and following the instructions and advice provided
• using equipment supplied by the employer, such as adjustable workstations or personal protective equipment such as safety boots, hearing protection or high-visibility vests as instructed

Employees can help prevent risks to workplace health and safety by notifying the employer of any hazards.

Employees must not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything the employer has provided in the interests of workplace health, safety or welfare. For example, employees must not:

• remove or bypass machine guarding or other safety devices
• use a fire extinguisher for purposes other than putting out fires

In ensuring that the workplace is safe and without risks to health, occupiers, or those managing or controlling workplaces, must eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. Where a risk cannot be eliminated, it must be reduced as far as is reasonably practicable.

Occupiers, or those managing or controlling workplaces, have duties under the OHS Act to ensure things in a workplace which they manage or control are safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable.

This includes the building, for example, structural soundness and protection of occupants from the weather, its services, for example, lighting and ventilation, and fittings such as doors, windows and shelves.

Examples of occupier duties

• Single tenancy employer/leasing company relationship
  Company X leases premises from you. As part of the leasing arrangements you are responsible for maintaining and authorising repairs to the workplace. Asbestos is discovered in the roof and has the potential to harm employees' health. You have management of this matter in the workplace and must control this risk.
• A large building complex under construction
  You are the principal contractor, you oversee construction and manage the numerous contractors and sub-contractors on site. The overall control and management of the workplace therefore belongs to you.
  Your duties also include ensuring that the means of entering and leaving a workplace are safe and without risks to health.
• Multiple-occupancy site
  You manage and control a building where there are several workplaces. Fire escapes must be unobstructed. You must ensure that you and your tenants do not use the stairways as a storage facility or otherwise restrict use of the fire escapes. Emergency evacuation procedures must be in place and effective.
• Multiple-occupancy site 
  You manage and control a large regional shopping centre. You are responsible for providing safety in the car parks for your employees, your tenants, their employees and users of the centre.

A person may have OHS duties under the OHS Act for more than one of their roles, for example, as an employer, as a person who manages and controls the workplace and as a supplier.

In addition, more than one person may have duties relating to a particular work activity and the environment in which the work is taking place. For example, both an employer and a contractor engaged to carry out work have OHS duties relating to the management and control of the work. The owner of the building and the employer occupying the building may also have duties relating to the work environment.