Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

1.8.2 Duties of care
Several judgments have established that employers 
owe a duty of care to each of their employees. This 
duty cannot be assigned to others, even if a consultant 
is employed to advise on health and safety matters or if 
the employees are sub-contracted to work with another 
employer. These duties may be sub-divided into four 
groups. Employers must:
➤
provide a safe place of work, including access and 
egress
➤
provide safe plant and equipment
➤
provide a safe system of work
➤
provide safe and competent fellow employees
➤
provide adequate levels of supervision, information, 
instruction and training.
Employer duties under common law are often mirrored 
in statute law. This, in effect, makes them both common 
law and statutory duties.
These duties apply even if the employee is working 
at a third party premises or if he has been hired by his 
employer to work for another employer.
The requirements of a safe workplace, including the 
maintenance of fl oors and the provision of walkways and 
safe stairways, for example, are also contained in the 
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
The requirement to provide competent fellow employ-
ees includes the provision of adequate supervision, 
instruction and training. As mentioned earlier, employers 
are responsible for the actions of their employees (
vicari-
ous liability
) provided that the action in question took 
place during the normal course of their employment.
1.9 
Levels of statutory duty
There are three levels of statutory duty which form a 
hierarchy of duties. These levels are used extensively 
in health and safety statutory (criminal) law but have 
been defi ned by judges under common law. The three 
levels of duty are absolute, practicable and reasonably 
practicable.