OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2004 - SECT 21 Duties of employers to employees

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2004 - SECT 21

    (1)     An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide and maintain for employees of the employer a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

Penalty:     1800 penalty units for a natural person;

9000 penalty units for a body corporate.

    (2)     Without limiting subsection (1), an employer contravenes that subsection if the employer fails to do any of the following—

        (a)     provide or maintain plant or systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;

        (b)     make arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage or transport of plant or substances;

        (c)     maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, each workplace under the employer's management and control in a condition that is safe and without risks to health;

        (d)     provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, adequate facilities for the welfare of employees at any workplace under the management and control of the employer;

        (e)     provide such information, instruction, training or supervision to employees of the employer as is necessary to enable those persons to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health.

    (3)     For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2)—

        (a)     a reference to an employee includes a reference to an independent contractor engaged by an employer and any employees of the independent contractor; and

        (b)     the duties of an employer under those subsections extend to an independent contractor engaged by the employer, and any employees of the independent contractor, in relation to matters over which the employer has control or would have control if not for any agreement purporting to limit or remove that control.

    (4)     An offence against subsection (1) is an indictable offence.

Note to s. 21(4) amended by No. 68/2009 s. 97(Sch. item 90.1).

Note

However, the offence may be heard and determined summarily (see section 28 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 ).