Provide a safe and healthy workplace
As an employer, you must take ‘all practicable steps’ to ensure the safety of your employees while they are at work. This includes your workplace plus any other sites, such as building, farming or forestry sites, where they do work for you.
Taking 'all practicable steps' means thinking about the ways that someone could be harmed and doing what is reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of that person. Doing what is 'reasonable' means approaching health and safety in a rational and cautious manner, taking into account how seriously someone could be harmed, how likely it is, how you could prevent it and what safeguards are available. You should also understand industry specific hazards that may affect your workplace.
What you must do
- Provide a safe working environment and facilities, such as first aid kits and protective equipment, for staff safety and health.
- Ensure any plant or equipment they use is designed and made safe for the employee to use and is properly maintained.
- Develop emergency procedures.
- Develop a system to identify new and existing hazards then eliminate, isolate, or minimise significant hazards.
- Record the details of any incidents or accidents and investigate to determine what needs to be done to prevent it happening again.
- Report any serious harm incidents to the Department of Labour.
- Involve your employees in developing ways to improve health and safety.
- Ensure that employees are aware of hazards that may affect them in the work they do and the controls that are in place to prevent harm.
- Make sure that all employees are adequately trained in safe operating procedures and supervised as they learn.
- Keep a first aid kit in each place where people are working. Kits should be a sufficient size to cope with the number of people needing to use it.
What you could do
Work through the Health and Safety Section
