Ensuring workplace safety is a shared responsibility that requires awareness and adherence to safety protocols and guidelines. Educating oneself about potential risks and injury prevention strategies is crucial to preventing workplace accidents. By strictly following safety rules and responsibilities, both employees and employers can create a safer work environment.
As a worker, it’s important to understand your rights under occupational health and safety legislation, which include:
- The right to know workplace hazards and how to control them.
- The right to identify and manage workplace hazards.
- The right to refuse work that you believe poses an unusual risk.
Alongside these rights, workers also have specific responsibilities:
- Cooperate with employers, supervisors, and occupational health representatives.
- Understand and comply with company health and safety policies, practices, and procedures.
- Properly use safety equipment provided by the employer.
- Immediately report accidents, occupational illnesses, and near misses.
- Report any health and safety hazards or concerns observed.
- Refrain from engaging in or condoning harassment in the workplace.
- Conduct oneself in a manner that prioritizes safety and responsibility.
By fulfilling these responsibilities, workers contribute to a safer workplace environment for themselves and their colleagues.