subject: Employees Health And Safety Responsibilities [print this page] Although employers have a legal obligation to ensure your safety whilst at work, as an employee you also have responsibilities of your own.
Put in the most simple terms, the law states that your employer must not expose you to avoidable risks at work. Your responsibility is to make sure that whatever practices and policies your employer has put in to stop you from coming to harm, you're following them.
Health and safety law requires any company with more than five employees to employ at least one person to specialise in health and safety jobs and act as an employee representative. These workers will also take responsibility for regular risk assessments of your workplace and practices within the company; it's their job to ensure that every possible step has been taken to minimise the risk of a potential hazard, where it's possible to do so without disrupting the business itself.
For other workers though, the most important responsibilities are simply in taking care of your own health and safety and making sure that you don't put others at risk either. Simple things like avoiding wearing jewellery or lose clothing when near machinery or if you have long hair, tyeing it up, are just a few of the measures you can take to keep yourself safe.
At work, if you have to work with any dangerous equipment you should be provided with the necessary personal protective equipment. It is up to you use this equipment correctly and to follow any training you are given. All safety equipment must be provided free of charge and you can refuse to wear it if you feel it puts your safety at risk. For example, if the safety equipment is the wrong size, you could be at risk because of poor fit.
If in your role you drive or operate machinery you are also responsible for telling your employer about any medication you may be on that could make you drowsy. By the same token, if you're not sure how to do something safely then you must make your employer aware of your concerns. It's their responsibility to offer training - its your responsibility to use it.
These laws establish a simple right that previously, was relatively rare in many jobs. Simply put, as an employee, you have the right to work in a safe environment. This right isn't enshrined the world over and its a relatively recent one, though this isn't to say the principle wasn't already in place at many places of work - it has always been true that if you're injured, you're not as productive as if you're healthy. Now though, in the UK at least, the responsibility for safe working conditions has become a universal legal right.
