Who is responsible for WHS in the workplace

As an employer, it is important to understand who is responsible for health and safety in the workplace and what actions you can take to ensure the health and safety of your employees, contractors and others who may be affected by your operational activities.

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Carry out risk assessments
Identify who needs protecting from potential hazards
Implement health and safety procedures
Create a health and safety policy
Display the health and safety law poster
Communicate with employees
Provide training and first aid kits
Follow health and safety instruction
Attend health and safety training
Adhere to safety procedures.
Report any hazards or failings in safety procedures.
Be proactive
Employer Obligations
Employee Responsibilities

Employers hold most of the responsibility for workplace health and safety, although no one person is solely accountable. In fact, The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 defines the general duties of everyone from employers and employees to business owners, managers and more (eg. maintainers of work premises) as maintaining health and safety within the workplace. In short, everybody is responsible in some part for workplace health and safety.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Great Britain’s national regulator for workplace health, safety and welfare. HSE’s purpose is to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health.

HSE’s responsibilities are primarily concentrated on the most serious risks within the workplace, targeting industries with the greatest hazards and sectors with the worst risk management records. HSE provides support to businesses by offering free advice and guidance to employers to help them manage workplace risks correctly.

While ensuring responsibility for workplace health and safety does not fall under one person, HSE states that: “it is an employer's duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their business.” Therefore, the majority of the responsibility belongs to the employer.

To fulfil their responsibilities, an employer must:

Carry out risk assessments

Employers are responsible for carrying out both generic and specific risk assessments (for example, coronavirus risk assessment, manual handling operations risk assessment, etc) to ensure that employees have all the information they need about the hazards, risks and relevant controls in their workplace.

Carrying out a risk assessment involves inspecting the workplace to determine all significant hazards and putting measures in place to eliminate, reduce, or control identified risks.

Risk assessments should highlight how employees are protected and are designed to instruct and inform employees on how to manage the risks.

Identify who needs protecting from potential hazards

Employers need to consider the health and safety of everyone on the premises or who could be affected by their operational activities. This includes all employees, contractors, part-time staff and people with specific requirements, such as pregnant women or those with disabilities.

Implement health and safety procedures

Employers must implement suitable and sufficient health and safety procedures by arranging for the installation, maintenance and management of any equipment or activity necessary to keep people safe. For example, this could involve supplying PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), replacing old equipment or providing your staff with additional training.

Create a health and safety policy

Creating a health and safety policy to make all staff aware of the relevant procedures is a legal requirement for all businesses. The policy should be documented if there are more than five employees, cover all health and safety procedures in the workplace, including fire safety and first aid, and be readily accessible by your employees, on-site contractors and other interested parties.

The policy should also detail how you manage workplace health and safety, such as risk assessment details, evacuation plans, staff training and consultation. The policy should also include the names of anyone with specific health and safety duties, for example, first aiders or fire wardens.

Display the health and safety law poster

It is a legal requirement for all employers to display the health and safety law poster, which outlines British health and safety laws and summarises the duties of staff and employers. It must be displayed in a place where workers can easily read it. For businesses with multiple sites, this will mean displaying a poster per location or remote workers can be provided with an equivalent leaflet or pocket card.

Communicate with employees

It’s essential for employers to regularly communicate with their employees regarding health and safety matters. This is especially important during the coronavirus pandemic. You should inform and involve your employees of any changes or additional controls that are being made to manage the risk of spreading coronavirus to create a safe working environment.

You should also find out if your employees have any concerns around risks and associated policies, and encourage their ideas for operating your business safely.

Provide training and first aid kits

Every business needs to have appointed first-aiders and a suitably-stocked first aid kit. There is no set number of first-aiders required, as it depends on your specific workplace risks and the type of injuries that may occur. As guidance, HSE recommends that low-hazard workplaces have at least one qualified first-aider for every 100 staff while high-hazard workplaces have one per 50 staff. The specific requirements for each workplace will be determined by a specific first-aid assessment which must be completed.

You should also provide training to ensure that all employees understand all potential risks in the workplace. Depending on the employee’s role, the specific type of health and safety training that they require may vary. For example, staff who regularly lift heavy objects should receive manual handling training, while those working with harmful substances may require chemical spill training.

According to HSE: “workers have a duty to take care of their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by [their] actions at work.” Therefore, employees share some workplace health and safety responsibilities with their employer. They must cooperate with their employer and co-workers to help everyone meet their legal requirements and stay safe in the workplace.

To help keep the workplace safe, employees must:

Follow health and safety instruction

All employees should follow any health and safety instructions and training they receive. This is to ensure that they work safely and take care of themselves and others who may be affected by their actions. Employees must never misuse any equipment provided for health and safety purposes, such as fire extinguishers and fire alarms.

Attend health and safety training

Employees must attend any health and safety training to ensure they keep themselves and their colleagues safe in the workplace.

Adhere to safety procedures.

Employees must always adhere to safety procedures and must wear PPE at all times, as required.

Report any hazards or failings in safety procedures.

If an employee thinks something could be a risk to their health and safety or the health and safety of others, they should report it to senior members of staff. For example, if the employee discovers faulty equipment or broken PPE, they must inform a relevant manager immediately so the hazard can be removed or suitably controlled. Employees should also inform senior staff if there is a risk with no appropriate control measure in place.

Be proactive

As employees must maintain good health and safety practices within their workplace, they should be proactive in their approach to upholding health and safety standards. For example, they should tidy away obstructions and clean up after themselves to help avoid accidents.

While the main responsibility of health and safety in the workplace falls on the employer, it is also the responsibility of the employee to help create a safe working environment. This is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic continues to present challenges to businesses across the UK, there are many resources available to help employers and employees create a COVID-secure workplace as far as is reasonably practicable.

For expert support managing the risk of transmission within the workplace, check out our COVID-19 Assurance Assessment Service.

August, 2021

Everyone in their workplace is equally responsible for their health safety and wellbeing. This includes temporary employee’s from a contractor company, a permanent payroll employee, a senior employee, or any person in charge, middle management, senior management, or workplace owner.

It does not matter if the workplace has a safety committee or whether there is union representation. Each person is responsible for safety in his or her work scope, and in the area around their work station.

Employer Obligations

It is the legal responsibility of business owners and employers to have health and safety management systems in their workplaces. They need to make sure that the staff members, and anyone who visits their grounds, is protected from any potential danger.

Employers should follow the industry standards, legislations, rules and regulations of the country they are working, and provide access to health and safety information, SDS (Safety Data Sheets for Chemicals) and first aid.

Provide a safe working environment, skilled staff, safe equipment, welfare and equipment.
Provide psychologically safe working environment.
Conducting occupational risk assessments to determine if there are adequate safety measures in place.
Identifying who needs protection from accidents, including employees, contractors, temporary workers and people with special needs.
Implement safety procedures by providing and maintaining anything needed to keep people safe, such as equipment and training.
Develop a health and safety policy to make employees aware of existing health and safety procedures, including fire safety and first aid.
Provide employees with information on occupational health and safety issues and how to protect them.
Provide policies, procedures and training for staff to be aware of the risks and know the process on how to keep themselves and other people around them safe.
Display of health and safety posters, incident warnings, health and safety information and updates, these are legal requirements.
Provide first aid, as well as the number of first aiders who have received practical training.

Employee Responsibilities

All staff members are required to report any injuries, near misses or illnesses, even if the illness is a minor injury like abrasions or cuts. While the injury is minor, something is more likely to happen if this is not investigated and corrected. If an employee tries to ignore it there is a possibility that it can get infected and if the employee does not report it, the employer can claim that it is not related to their activity within the workplace.

If the workplace needs safety equipment or tools, and employees are instructed to use it, they should do so. If they do not use these resources, they may face disciplinary action that could result in loss of employment.

Each employee needs to report any injuries, even paper cuts. While cutting the paper cut is small, something is more likely to become infected, and cause more intermediate problems. If the wound is infected and the staff member does not report it, the employer can claim that it is not related to their task they perform within the workplace.

Employees also have a legal duty to maintain the workplace safe and responsible for looking after their own health and safety as well as others who may be affected by their actions at work. Employee contributions to health and safety at work should be a priority and employers should be encouraged to utilise it.
Understand the risks associated with their occupation, and do their job safely. This will assist the workplace to reduce workplace accidents.
Follow any health and safety training, and work in a manner that does not endanger them or others.
Comply with safety procedures, which include anything, put in place to protect their safety, such as safety barriers, systems, equipment, and wearing PPE if their work requires the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the tasks they are performing.
Keep working safe without any injury or incident or any other illness that may arise from the work they conducting within the workplace.
Report any hazards and hazards to their workplace or failure of safety procedures if they think there is a safety hazard. For example, if they find the wrong equipment or broken PPE, they should notify their supervisor immediately.

In the end, it makes sense for a person who is committed to the health and safety of employees to take the bulk of the burden on others, thus allowing them to be more productive.

Employers are becoming more and more serious to comply with this law by setting necessary policies and procedures, safe system of work, engineering controls and providing safety tools, equipment and gears to protect their health and wellbeing.

Safety committees can increase the consultation within the workplace.
Safety committee can assist the staff members to understand health and safety information, and responsibilities in his or her work scope.

WHS and Training Compliance Solutions Pty Ltd has online WHS training and Health and Safety Committee and WHS for Managers and Supervisors workshops across All states and Territories, contact us for online health and safety training opportunities. (or onsite training)