Workplace Safety and Health Act · 2024 Revised Edition · Part · General Duties of Persons at Workplaces
12. Duties of employers
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
It shall be the duty of every employer to take, so far as is reasonably practicable, such measures as are necessary to ensure the safety and health of his employees at work.
It shall be the duty of every employer to take, so far as is reasonably practicable, such measures as are necessary to ensure the safety and health of persons (not being his employees) who may be affected by any undertaking carried on by him at the workplace.
For the purposes of subsection (1), the measures necessary to ensure the safety and health of persons at work include —
at work
“at work” means — (a) in relation to an employee, all times when the employee is performing work in connection with any trade, business, profession or undertaking carried on by his employer, wherever that work is carried out; (b) in relation to a self-employed person, all times when that person is performing work as a self-employed person, wherever the work is carried out; and (c) in any other case, all times when the person is performing work at the direction of the person who engaged him, wherever the work is carried out;
providing and maintaining for those persons a work environment that is safe, without risk to health, and adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work;
ensuring that adequate safety measures are taken in respect of any machinery, equipment, plant, article or process used by those persons;
ensuring that those persons are not exposed to hazards arising out of the arrangement, disposal, manipulation, organisation, processing, storage, transport, working or use of things —
in their workplace; or
near their workplace and under the control of the employer;
developing and implementing procedures for dealing with emergencies that may arise while those persons are at work;
ensuring that the person at work has adequate instruction, information, training and supervision as is necessary for him to perform his work;
Workplace Safety and Health 26
the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health.
Every employer shall, where required by the regulations, give to persons (not being his employees) the prescribed information about such aspects of the way in which he conducts his undertaking as might affect their safety or health while they are at his workplace.
Terms defined in s 4
at work
Defined · s 4“at work” means — (a) in relation to an employee, all times when the employee is performing work in connection with any trade, business, profession or undertaking carried on by his employer, wherever that work is carried out; (b) in relation to a self-employed person, all times when that person is performing work as a self-employed person, wherever the work is carried out; and (c) in any other case, all times when the person is performing work at the direction of the person who engaged him, wherever the work is carried out;
machinery
Defined · s 4“machinery” includes — (a) any oil engine, gas engine, steam engine and any other machine in which mechanical movement, either linear, rotated or both, takes place; (b) any steam boiler, gas cylinder, air receiver, steam receiver, steam container or refrigerating plant pressure receiver; (c) any appliance for transmission of power by ropes, belts, chains, driving straps or bands or gearing; and (d) any electrical generator or electrical motor, but does not include any machinery used solely for the propulsion of vehicles;
Part
Powers of Enforcement
Part
Investigations, Inquiries and Reporting of Accidents, Dangerous Occurences and Occupational Diseases
Part
Safety and Health Management Arrangements
Part
Codes of Practice
Part
Inspections and Other Powers of Enforcement
Part
Offences, Penalties and Proceedings
Part