Legal duties when moving people

Hazards and risks

A hazard is something that can cause harm. A risk is the chance of a hazard causing harm. Harm includes injury, illness and death.

Employers have a legal duty to provide and maintain a working environment for their employees that is safe and without risks to health. Employers must fulfil this duty so far as is reasonably practicable.

It is the duty of individual employers to develop their own approach to preventing injuries associated with handling and moving people. The information in this guidance can be part of such a program. Employers can customise and tailor the guidance to suit their own occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems.

Occupational Health and Safety Act

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) is a law to help keep workplaces safe. It includes principles, duties and rights related to health and safety. The duties in the OHS Act cover a variety of circumstances. How employers fulfil their duties will depend on the workplace.

Key principles of the OHS Act include the following.

• Employers have a duty to ensure they provide for their employees:
  • a safe working environment
  • appropriate job design and work systems
  • access to proper equipment, support and training.
• Employers also have a duty to people who are not their employees. Employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure their workplace activities do not put the health and safety of others at risk. This includes volunteers, students, patients and residents.
• Those who manage or control hazards that create risks in the workplace are responsible for the following, so far as is reasonably practicable:
  • eliminating the risks, or
  • reducing the risks, if they cannot be eliminated.
• Employers should proactively promote health and safety at work.
• Employers and employees should share information and ideas about risks and how to control them.
• Employees are entitled to be represented when it comes to OHS issues.
• Employees also have a duty to comply with the workplace’s safe system of work.

Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations) are another set of laws. They support the OHS Act. The OHS Regulations provide detailed requirements for managing specific hazards and risks. They also set out the duties for employers, employees and others in relation to various hazards, including hazardous manual handling and plant.

Duties of employers

Employers have a general duty to provide and maintain a safe workplace. They also have specific duties in relation to hazardous manual handling and consultation.

Employers must identify any work that involves hazardous manual handling. If the work poses a risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), employers must eliminate the risk so far as is reasonably practicable.

If it’s not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk of MSD, employers must reduce the risk, so far as reasonably practicable. They must do this in line with the hierarchy of control.

The hierarchy of control is a system for managing workplace risks. It ranks risk controls from the most effective to the least effective. Eliminating the hazard and risk is the highest level of control in the hierarchy. If risks cannot be eliminated, they must be reduced so far as is reasonably practicable.

An employer must reduce the risk of MDS by:

• changing the workplace layout, the workplace environment or the systems of work; or
• providing or changing the things, such as equipment, used in the hazardous manual handling; or
• using mechanical aids; or
• a combination of any of the above controls.

If there is still a risk after taking these steps, employers must control the risk so far as is reasonably practicable by providing information, instruction or training.

Employers can only rely solely or primarily on information, instruction or training to help control the risk of MSD when higher-order control measures are not reasonably practicable or do not control the risk.

When identifying and controlling risks, employers must consult with employees and any relevant health and safety representatives (HSRs). Employers must consult so far as is reasonably practicable.

Employers must review and, where necessary, revise the risk controls they have in place. They must do this:

• before any changes to any thing, process or system of work involving hazardous manual handling
• if new or additional information about hazardous manual handling becomes available
• if there is a report of MSD in the workplace
• after a notifiable incident that involves the moving of people or otherwise involves hazardous manual handling
• if the risk control measures do not adequately control the risk
• at the request of an HSR.

Duties of employees

Employees have a general duty to take reasonable care of their own health and safety. They must also take reasonable care of the health and safety of people who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work. Employees must also cooperate with their employer’s efforts to make the workplace safe. This can include, for example:

• using manual handling aids and assistance devices in line with training the employer has provided, based on manufacturer guidelines
• following workplace policies and procedures.

Employees can also help their employer make the workplace safer by notifying the employer of any hazardous manual handling tasks.

Duties of designers, manufacturers and suppliers

The safe design of plant, buildings and structures plays an important role in reducing hazardous manual handling risks.

Those who design a building or structure, or any part of it, must ensure that it is designed to be safe and without risks to the health of persons using it as a workplace. They must do this so far as is reasonably practicable.

Those who manufacture and supply plant (for example, machinery) for workplaces also have legal duties. So far as is reasonably practicable, they must ensure the plant is without risks to health and safety if used for a purpose for which it was designed, manufactured or supplied. This includes any risk of MSD.

Manufacturers and suppliers must also provide adequate information on the safe use and maintenance of their product when giving or supplying it to someone else.