Work health and safety

Your responsibilities

Employees have obligations to look out for their safety and the safety of others at work.

While you are at work, you must:

• take reasonable care for your own health and safety
• take reasonable care for the health and safety of others
• follow any reasonable instructions, policy or procedure from your employer.

This includes:

• using personal protective equipment (PPE) in the correct way
• asking for help if you aren’t sure how to do something safely
• reporting unsafe and unhealthy situations and injuries to your supervisor.

You have the right to refuse to do unsafe work. If you are concerned for your safety or the safety of someone else, you should stop work and speak to your manager or get legal advice.

For more information, see Worker obligations on the SafeWork NSW website.

Your employers responsibilities

Your employer has a duty of care towards you and other workers to ensure your health and safety while you are at work. This includes your physical and mental health and safety.

Your employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that you and other workers are not exposed to risks to your psychological or physical health in the workplace. This includes risks of harm from bullying and sexual harassment. 

Your employer must either:

• eliminate risks to health and safety as far as reasonably practicable, or
• if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, minimise the risks as much as reasonably practicable. 

Your employer still has responsibilities to manage your health and safety, even if you work remotely.

If your employer doesn’t take all necessary steps to prevent bullying in the workplace, they may be breaching Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws. 

For more information, see Employer and business obligations on the SafeWork NSW website. 

Dealing with a workplace hazard

If you notice something unsafe at work, you can:

• speak to your supervisor or manager
• follow any procedures your employer has about reporting workplace hazards
• speak to the health and safety representative at your workplace
• speak to your union representative (if you are part of a union)
• make a complaint to SafeWork NSW, if you can’t solve the problem using any of the steps above. You can report this anonymously through the Speak Up Save Lives app.

SafeWork NSW can investigate whether your employer has breached their duties and prosecute them for serious breaches of Work Health and Safety laws.

For more information, see Incident notification and Safety starts here on the SafeWork NSW website.

Injuries at work

If you are injured at work, you must notify to your employer as soon as possible.

Your employer must notify SafeWork NSW immediately if there has been a serious injury, illness, death or dangerous incident at work.

For more information, see Incident notification on the SafeWork NSW website.

If you have been injured at work, you may be able to claim workers compensation. Workers compensation is a type of insurance payment that you may be able to receive if you are injured or become sick due to your work. It covers your loss of income, medical expenses and rehabilitation. Your employer must have workers compensation insurance so that you are covered if you are injured at work.

For more information, see Workers compensation.

Injuries outside of work

If you are injured or become sick outside of work, you may be able to take leave while you recover.

For more information, see Leave.

If you have an income protection policy and you haven’t been well enough to work because of an injury or illness, you may also be able to lodge a claim under your insurance policy. Income protection insurance pays part of your lost income if you can’t work because of a temporary illness or injury.

If you haven’t purchased an income protection policy, you should check whether you have a policy through your superannuation fund. Most superannuation funds offer income protection insurance to their members.

For more information, see Income protection insurance on the moneysmart website.