What are two 2 responsibilities of an employer?

For things to go well at work, the employer and the employee must each respect certain legal obligations.

Índice Show

Main Responsibilities of Employees
When Employees Don’t Respect Their Responsibilities
Employers’ Responsibilities Towards Employees
When Employers Don’t Respect Their Responsibilities
Unionized Workplaces

Important! If you are a self-employed worker, this article doesn’t apply to you as an employee. However, it might apply to you as an employer if you hire employees.

Main Responsibilities of Employees

Employees have responsibilities towards their employers, even if they work part time or don’t have a written contract with their employers.

These are the main responsibilities of employees:

to personally do the work they were hired to do
to do their work carefully and seriously (In some cases, they could be fired or disciplined if they’re often late for work, or if they’re absent too often or for no good reason.)
to avoid putting themselves or others in danger
to follow their employer’s instructions (There are some exceptions. For example, if an employer asks an employee to do something dangerous or illegal, the employee doesn’t have to follow these instructions.
to be loyal and honest

When Employees Don’t Respect Their Responsibilities

If employees don’t respect their responsibilities, the employer is allowed to take certain actions:

discipline employees, such as giving a written warning, or suspending them
take other action against employees, such as giving a letter evaluating their performance, or demoting them (that is, giving them a lower job)
fire employees if they do something very serious, such as stealing from the office
take employees to court to make them pay an amount of money (for example, if the employee quits without telling the employer in advance, or if the employee quits before the date in the employment contract)
take employees to court to stop them from doing things that are harmful to the business

Employers’ Responsibilities Towards Employees

These are the main ones:

Employers must give their employees a place to work and make sure they have access to it. They must give them the tools, equipment and other things they need to do their work.
Employers must pay their employees the salary and benefits they agreed to, including vacation, paid holidays and other types of holidays.
Employers must make sure that working conditions protect their employees’ physical and psychological health and safety.
In some cases, employers must give their employees written notice that their contracts are ending or that they are being laid off. Note that employers can pay employees a sum of money instead of giving the notice.
Employers must treat their employees with respect. They must make sure their employees are not harassed or discriminated against.
Employers must take steps when they know, or reasonably should know, that employees are exposed to domestic, family or sexual violence in the workplace. They must do this whether the employee is working in the office or working from home.

NOTE: If an employee signs a written contract with the employer, it might place more responsibilities on the employer than the ones required by law.

For example, an employment contract might say that the employer has to pay employees who have to use their own cars to do their jobs. Or the contract might also say that the employer has to pay back their employees for travel or entertainment expenses if they show their receipts.

When Employers Don’t Respect Their Responsibilities

Employees and employers can try to settle things by talking to each other. In some cases, employees must try talking to their employer before taking any further steps.

Employees can file a complaint with the following:

The office or tribunal at which to file a complaint depends on which law applies to the situation, the jurisdiction, the amount of money the employee is asking for and whether the employee belongs to a union.

If the employee belongs to a union, the union can usually present a grievance (a complaint) on the employee’s behalf for situations like these:

The employee disagrees with the employer about what the union contract (called a “collective agreement”) says.
The employer did not respect one of the employee’s legal rights.

A person called the “grievance arbitrator” decides whether the grievance is justified. If the grievance is about the employee’s health and safety at work, the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT or Administrative Labour Tribunal) can also decide whether the grievance is justified.

Employees should talk to a labour law expert before quitting a job. The expert can tell employees how quitting will affect their rights to file a complaint. The expert can also tell them how to prevent their employer from taking them to court after quitting.

Unionized Workplaces

The employer and the union can agree on the employees’ working conditions, for example, annual vacations, pay increases and sick leave. These working conditions are then written in the collective agreement. A collective agreement is a contract between the employer and all the employees. It is the union that negotiates the collective agreement with the employer. The union acts on behalf of all the employees. The responsibilities contained in the collective agreement are in addition to the responsibilities contained in the law.

While the duty of care of employers under the 2004 OHS Act are more or less the same as what they were under the 1985 Act (although they have been slightly 're-arranged'), the definition of health has been amended. The new definition is as follows:

"health" includes psychological health

This means that the employer must address workplace hazards such as bullying, stress and fatigue.

There are a number of 'duty holders' under the OHS Act, but for employees (and others) the most important of these is the employer.

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 Section 20:

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.