Meeting your obligations
How to meet your obligations
Protection for speaking up
How to meet your obligations
You can meet your workplace health and safety obligations by following the law.
- If a regulation or ministerial notice tells you how to prevent or minimise exposure to a risk, you must comply
- If a regulation or ministerial notice prohibits exposure to a risk, you must comply
- If a code of practice states a way of managing exposure to a risk, you must adopt and follow that approach or one that gives you at least the same level of protection against the risk
If there is no regulation, ministerial notice or code of practice to guide you in managing a particular risk or preventing exposure to it, you still have a workplace health and safety obligation. You can meet your obligation by taking reasonable precautions and exercising due care in your work activities.
Otherwise you are breaching the law. Penalties may be imposed for breaching the workplace health and safety laws.
See the Risk Management Code of Practice 2007 for further information.
Protection for speaking up
As a workplace health and safety officer, workplace health and safety representative or worker, you may have a concern about a workplace health and safety issue at your workplace.
The Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) encourages you to speak up, protecting you from victimisation.
Amendments to the Act in 2003 particularly protect:
- workplace health and safety officers;
- workplace health and safety representatives; and
- members of a workplace health and safety committee.
By law, an employer cannot dismiss or victimise you for:
- making a complaint about an issue concerning exposure to a risk of illness of injury; or
- contacting or helping a workplace health and safety inspector.
Refer to Section 174 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) for more information.
Last updated December 19, 2005
Other languages