The duties employees (workers) have under the 2004 OHS Act are basically the same as under the earlier 1985 Act. The one difference is that workers, like employers and other parties, can now be charged under the new offence of 'reckless endangerment'. For more information on this, see the page on Reckless Endangerment in this section.
Section 25: Duties of employees
Workers must:
- take reasonable care for their own health and safety
- take reasonable care for the health and safety of others who may affected by their acts or omissions
- cooperate with anything the employer does to comply with OHS requirements
- not 'intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse' anything provided at the workplace for OHS.
The Act also specifies that in determining whether a worker failed to take reasonable care, 'regard must be had to what the employee knew about the relevant circumstances'.
See Also
- WorkSafe Victoria has produced a publication providing information on the 2004 Act for workers: Information for employees on health and safety.
- There is also a brief information leaflet for workers in a number of community languages: Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, (and perhaps others...)
The 2004 Act can be downloaded (in both pdf and word format) on the Victorian government legislation repository website.
Last amended May 2020