Protecting Yourself and Others

Workplaces are potentially very dangerous environments. In some workplaces there are processes or materials that if used without due care and attention can result in injury to workers.

It is for this reason that employers and employees have responsibility to ensure that the work environment is safe. While employees are required to work safely without taking any unnecessary risks and to report any potential hazards, employers have a much wider set of responsibilities.

Under the Health Safety and Welfare at Work Act 1989, employers must produce a safety statement. In this statement employers are required to identify the potential hazards that exist in the workplace and to state what measures they have put in place in order to avoid accidents. In a typical safety statement an employer might identify that cables coming from the back of computers or machines as a hazard that might result in trips and falls. The employer might therefore have these cables concealed of covered to avoid this hazard.

The Health and Safety Authority is the State Agency that is charged with responsibility for enforcing the legislation and promoting a safer workplace. They have a division of inspectors who do safety audits of workplaces.