New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATION 2001 - REG 11

11 Employer to eliminate or control risks

(1) Subject to subclause (2), an employer must eliminate any reasonably foreseeable risk to the health or safety of:

(a) any employee of the employer, or

(b) any other person legally at the employer’s place of work,

or both, that arises from the conduct of the employer’s undertaking.

(2) If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk, the employer must control the risk.

(3) An employer must ensure that all measures (including procedures and equipment) that are adopted to eliminate or control risks to health and safety are properly used and maintained.

(4) An employer who employs 20 or fewer employees is not required to comply with this clause within the period of 2 years after its commencement (except to the extent that the clause applies to risks involving hazardous substances or manual handling).

(5) An employer who employs more than 20 employees is not required to comply with this clause within the period of 12 months after its commencement (except to the extent that the clause applies to risks involving hazardous substances or manual handling).

Maximum penalty: Level 4.

Note: An employer must also comply with any specific risk control measures required by this Regulation. In particular see Parts 4.3, 4.4, 5.4 and 6.4 and Chapters 7 and 8. The Regulation (for example, in Part 4.2 and in Chapter 5) also imposes risk control requirements on other persons, such as controllers of places of work, designers and manufacturers of plant and so on. Clause 5 sets out the order of control measures to be taken if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate a risk.