Health and safety 393employees and the arrangements for carrying out that policy. They must bring the state-
ment to the notice of all employees. They may also be required to consult with recognised
trade unions to promote and develop health and safety measures.
Section 4 of the Act imposes a duty on controllers of premises to take such steps as are
reasonable to ensure that non-employees are safe.
Duty in relation to articles and substances
Section 6 imposes a duty on any person who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies
any article for use at work. The designer, etc. must ensure that the article is designed and
constructed so as to be safe. This may involve carrying out tests and examinations. There is
also a duty to see that people provided with the article have been given adequate informa-
tion about it and that this information is updated.
Duties of other persons
Section 7 imposes a general duty on employees to take reasonable care of the health and
safety of themselves and of others who might be affected by their acts or omissions. There
is also a duty to co-operate with the employer so that he can perform or comply with his
statutory obligations.
Section 8 imposes a duty on any person not to interfere with or misuse things provided
in pursuance of health and safety legislation. Section 9 prevents employers from charging
for things done to maintain health and safety legislation.
Section 36 provides that where one person commits an offence under the Act, but this is
due to the fault of some other person, then the other person can be charged with and con-
victed of the offence. So a person who was not an employer could be charged with a breach
of s. 2 of the Act, which sets out the duties of an employer.
Section 37 provides that where a company commits an offence under the Act, if the
offence was committed with the consent or connivance of, or was attributable to, any direc-
tor or manager both he and the company should be guilty of an offence. Where a company
commits an offence under the Act, it will often be the case that a manager or director
consented to the offence being committed.
Common law health and safety
In Chapter 8 the requirements of the tort of negligence were set out. Employers owe a duty
of care to their employees. If this duty is breached, and this breach causes the claimant to
suffer a foreseeable type of injury, then the employee can sue in the tort of negligence.
Employers owe three particular duties of care to their employees:
(i) They owe a duty to provide safe plant and equipment.
(ii) They owe a duty to provide a safe system of work.
(iii) They owe a duty to provide reasonably competent fellow employees.
In each case the duty owed is to take such care as an ordinary prudent employer would take
in all the circumstances and cannot be delegated.
As the duty is owed to employees personally, if an employer knows that an employee
has a particular weakness, account must be taken of this. For example, in Parisv Stepney
BC (1951) an employee who had only one good eye was asked to hammer the underneath
of a vehicle and was not given protective goggles. He was blinded because his hammering
caused a shard of metal to fly into his good eye. The House of Lords held that the employer
was liable in the tort of negligence, and the fact that the employee was known to have only
one good eye was a relevant factor.