What are two (2) responsibilities of an employer, besides duty of care?

Employers have legal responsibilities to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. As an employee you have rights and you have responsibilities for your own wellbeing and that of your colleagues. This article explains what these responsibilities are, and how you can meet them.

Índice Show

Your responsibilities
Personal protective equipment
What you should do if you have concerns
Where you can get help
More useful links
Page Overview:
Section 5: Definitions
Section 20: The concept of ensuring health and safety
Section 21: Duties of the employer
Section 22 - Duties of employers to monitor health and conditions, etc
Section 23: Duties of employers to other persons
Other employer duties:

Your rights as an employee to work in a safe and healthy environment are given to you by law and generally can't be changed or removed by your employer. The most important of these rights are:

as far as possible, to have any risks to your health and safety properly controlled
to be provided with any personal protective and safety equipment free of charge
to stop work and leave your work area, without being disciplined if you have reasonable concerns about your safety
to tell your employer about any health and safety concerns you have
not to be disciplined if you contact the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), or your local authority, if your employer won't listen to your concerns
to have rest breaks during the working day
to have time off from work during the working week
to have annual paid holiday
Health and safety - frequently asked questions
Employers' health and safety responsibilities
Working hours

Your responsibilities

Your most important responsibilities as an employee are:

to take reasonable care of your own health and safety
if possible to avoid wearing jewellery or loose clothing if operating machinery
if you have long hair, or wear a headscarf, make sure it's tucked out of the way as it could get caught in machinery
to take reasonable care not to put other people - fellow employees and members of the public - at risk by what you do or don't do in the course of your work
to co-operate with your employer, making sure you get proper training and you understand and follow the company's health and safety policies
not to interfere with or misuse anything that's been provided for your health, safety or welfare
to report any injuries, strains or illnesses you suffer as a result of doing your job, your employer may need to change the way you work
to tell your employer if something happens that might affect your ability to work, like becoming pregnant or suffering an injury - because your employer has a legal responsibility for your health and safety, they may need to suspend you while they find a solution to the issue or problem, but you will normally be paid if this happens
if you drive or operate machinery, you have a responsibility to tell your employer if you take medication that makes you drowsy - if you have, they should temporarily move you to another job if they have one for you to do

Personal protective equipment

Your employer must provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to you free of charge. You must use this correctly and follow the training and instruction you've been given.

In some jobs, failure to use PPE properly can be grounds for disciplinary action or even dismissal. However, you can refuse to wear PPE if it puts your safety at risk, because it doesn't fit properly for example.

Ask your employer or the firm's safety representative for the right size.

Sikhs who wear turbans can legally refuse to wear head protection on religious grounds, but Sikhs who don't wear turbans must wear head protection.

Employers' health and safety responsibilities

What you should do if you have concerns

If you have concerns about health and safety at work, you should first of all discuss them with your employer or immediate boss. If you have a safety representative, they might be your first point of contact. If you have an employee representative, such as a trade union official, they may be able to help you as well.

Your employer should not expose you to avoidable risks at work, and if you've pointed out risks without getting an answer, you can get confidential information and advice from the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland freephone helpline.

As a last resort, you can get in touch with HSENI inspectors.

Health and safety inspectors have powers to enforce the law and if you take this course of action, your employer mustn't discipline you, or put you at a disadvantage in your job as a result.

An example of this could be not paying you for the time you refused to work because of unsafe conditions or passing you over for promotion.

How to resolve a problem at work
Blowing the whistle on workplace wrongdoing

Where you can get help

The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) and Advice NI offer free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues for residents of Northern Ireland.

Page Overview:

Section 5: Definitions

employee means a person employed under a contract of employment or contract of training;
employer means a person who employs one or more other persons under contracts of employment or contracts of training;

In changes to the OHS Act implemented on March 22, 2022, the definition of employer and employee has been extended to provide additional protections to labour hire employees. Labour Hire workers will now be 'employees' of the 'host' employer as well as employees of the labour hire firm. Read more: WorkSafe media release

Specifically, Section 5A Extended definition of employer and employee - labour hire

For the purposes of this Act, a person is taken to be an employer of a worker, and the worker is taken to be an employee of the person, if a provider of labour hire services supplies the worker to, recruits the worker for or places the worker with the person to perform work for the person.

That is, a labour hire worker is treated as an 'employee' of the host employer.

Host employer – (in line with the Labour Hire Authority) people or organisations who run businesses that use labour hire workers to perform work in their business

In considering the duties of various duty holders, we must keep uppermost in our minds what the Act states in in subsequent sections.

Section 20: The concept of ensuring health and safety

To avoid doubt, a duty imposed on a person by this Part or the regulations to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, health and safety requires the person -
1. to eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable; and
2. if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to reduce those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Section 21: Duties of the employer

To provide and maintain so far as reasonably practicable .... a working environment that is safe and without risk to health.
(without in any way limiting part 1) the employer must:
1. provide and maintain (so far as reasonably practicable) safe plant (machinery, tools) and systems of work
2. ensure that (so far as reasonably practicable) the use, handling, storage & transport of plant and substances (chemicals) is safe & without risks to health
3. ensure that (so far as reasonably practicable) the workplace under his control is safe and without risks to health
4. provide adequate facilities (washrooms, toilets, lockers, dining areas, first aid, etc) again, so far as reasonably practicable
5. provide as much information, instruction, training and supervision to the workers so that they can work safely, etc NOTE - this is NOT qualified by 'so far as is reasonably practicable'.
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WorkSafe has produced a guideline (made under Section 12 of the OHS Act, 2004): How WorkSafe applies the law in relation to Reasonably Practicable which explains the concept and its application.
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Who is an employee?? This part explains that for parts 1 & 2, if a company contracts work out to a contractor, then that contractor, and the employees of that contractor are considered to be employees of the original company. Example: Mary works for Supercleaners, head office in St Kilda Rd. She works in the evenings at the AJ Department Store in Exhibition St in the city. Supercleaners are her employers and must provide information and training, safe & healthy equipment, protective clothing, chemicals and systems of work, etc.
But as she is working in the AJ Department Store building, AJ has the responsibility to make sure the building is safe (eg floors, lifts, exits, any equipment on site and so on).

Section 22 - Duties of employers to monitor health and conditions, etc

An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable:
1. monitor the health of the employees; and
2. monitor the conditions at the workplace under their management and control (eg heat, cold, dust levels, fumes, and so on) ; and
3. provide information to employees (including in appropriate other languages) on health and safety, including the names of who to take an ohs issue/enquiry to
An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable:
1. keep information and records on the health and safety of employees; and
2. employ experts (people who are 'suitably qualified') to provide advice
Note: There is a WorkSafe Position on Section 22(2)(b) 'suitably qualified' (made under Section 12 of the Act) which provides an explanation of what this means, and also a useful handbook for employers: Getting help to improve health and safety

Section 23: Duties of employers to other persons

Under this section an employer has a legal duty to make sure that the health and safety of OTHER people (not employees) is not put at risk from anything the employer, his business or his workers might do.

This duty also applies to self-employed persons under Section 24.