Health & Safety

Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992

The principal objective of the Health and Safety Act is to prevent harm from occurring to employees, visitors, contractors and subcontractors while they are at your workplace. It does this by imposing a wide range of legal responsibilities on employers and employees.

It seeks to achieve that firstly by recognising that:

Constructive employment relationships generate safe and healthy workplaces
Those involved in the work (employers, employees etc) are usually best placed to decide on the particular measures to make their own workplace safe.
The only sure way to do that is by systematic management of all hazards.

These principles are supported by specific arrangements that:

Reinforce the primary responsibility as being that of the employer or other person responsible for the work.
Acknowledge that employees too have responsibilities to themselves and others.
In bringing those two sets of responsibilities together, require good faith cooperation between employers and employees.
Have the expectation that employee participation in health and safety issues will bring to bear readily available knowledge on the issues.

The Act requires employers and employees to approach health and safety systematically but flexibly through:

Hazard Identification and Control
Information, Training and Supervision
Accident Reporting and Investigation
Emergency Procedures

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