Employers

Employers are required to consult employees (and their health and safety representatives) about health and safety matters that could directly affect them.

This includes when:

• identifying hazards, assessing risks and deciding how to control risks
• assessing the adequacy of workplace welfare facilities (such as dining rooms, toilets or first aid).
• determining the membership of any health and safety committee
• deciding on health and safety policies and procedures
• proposing changes to the workplace that could affect the health and safety of employees, including changes to the equipment or substances used or how work is done

This duty is not meant to be onerous or time-consuming. Employers need to take a sensible, proactive approach and consult as far as reasonably practicable in the circumstances.

Consultation needs to involve:

• sharing information about anything that could affect workplace health and safety – information must be timely and in a form that can be understood by employees, including in other languages where appropriate
• giving employees a reasonable opportunity to express their views – employees should be encouraged to play a part in the problem-solving process
• taking those views into account – employees should help to shape decisions, not hear about them after they are made.

You must also consult any independent contractor/s (and their employees) that you hire to do work over which you have, or should have, control.

If the employees are represented by a health and safety representative, the HSR must be included in the consultation. 

Employers must:

• provide all the information to the HSR which will be provided to employees
• Provide the information to the HSR a reasonable time before distributing it to other employees, if possible
• meet with the HSRs if they accept an invitation to meet or if a meeting is requested by the HSR
• give the HSR the opportunity to express their views
• take the HSR’s views into account.

View the regulations

If your worker has a work-related injury or illness, you have duties under the Accident Compensation Act, one of which is to ensure their safe return to work. The employer's obligations include:

• appoint a return to work coordinator,
• develop and implement a return to work plan, and
• support and monitor your worker when they return to work.