The
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
The
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 provides a wide,
embracing, enabling framework for health, safety and welfare in the UK.
The Act places specific duties on
- employers who
have duties to employees and others who are not their employees
- employees who
may be junior staff, managers or indeed even safety representatives.
All employees need to understand their employer's obligations.
- occupiers of
premises
- designers,
manufacturers, importers and suppliers and their responsibilities for
articles/substances used at work
It is
important to remember that the Act places a duty of care on both
employers and employees to ensure health, safety and welfare in the
workplace. The legislation is relevant to the prevention of RSI-type
conditions, and as such, both employers and employees must, so far as
it is reasonably practical, take all necessary steps to prevent their
occurrence.
Although over recent years it has been reinforced by more explicit
legislation, it still remains the cornerstone of UK health &
safety legislation.
As more recent legislation places a much more explicit duty of care we
recommend that you browse through all the relevant guides to specific
health and safety legislation on the RSIA site. You can download the
actual statutory instruments from this website.
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