Employee Duties Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005

Health and safety law in Ireland is often described as an employer's responsibility, but the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 also places legal duties on employees. Those duties apply to everyone who works under a contract of employment, from a new starter to a senior manager. This guide explains the employee duties under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act in Ireland as the statute and official plain-English pages state them, and suggests how employers in Dublin and elsewhere can make them clear in practice. If you are looking at the employer side, our guide to safety statements and risk assessments is the companion piece.

Who counts as an employee under the Act?

Section 2 defines an employee as a person who has, or had, a contract of employment, and it expressly includes fixed-term and temporary employees. Section 8 separately says that the duties an employer owes to its employees also apply to fixed-term and temporary employees whose services it uses. In short, the duties described below are not limited to permanent staff.

The core duties in section 13

Section 13 sets out what employees must do while at work. Reading the text, the duties are as follows.

• Comply and take reasonable care. Comply with the relevant legal provisions and take reasonable care to protect their own safety, health and welfare and that of any other person who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.
• Do not be under the influence of an intoxicant. Employees must not be under the influence of an intoxicant to the extent that they could endanger their own or others' safety, health or welfare.
• Intoxicant testing, if reasonably required. If the employer reasonably requires it, employees must submit to appropriate and proportionate testing carried out by or under a registered doctor, as prescribed. Citizens Information describes this more generally as attending any reasonable medical or other assessment the employer requests.
• Cooperate. Employees must cooperate with their employer, or any other person, as necessary to enable them to comply with their legal duties.
• Avoid improper conduct. Employees must not engage in improper conduct or behaviour that is likely to endanger their own or others' safety, health or welfare.
• Attend training. Employees must attend the safety, health and welfare training that the employer reasonably requires or that is prescribed, including training that relates to the employee's work, and, as appropriate, undergo the related assessment.
• Use what is provided properly. Having regard to the training and instructions received, employees must correctly use any article or substance provided for work or for protection, including protective clothing and equipment.
• Report. Employees must report to the employer, or another appropriate person, promptly if they become aware of work being done that is likely to endanger anyone, of a defect in the place of work, the systems of work or any article or substance that could endanger anyone, or of a breach of the legal requirements that could endanger anyone.

Section 13 also contains a separate rule about hiring: when entering a contract of employment, an employee must not misrepresent to the employer their level of training in relation to the safety, health and welfare training the section refers to.

Interference and misuse: section 14

Section 14 goes beyond employees. It says that no person may intentionally, recklessly or without reasonable cause interfere with, misuse or damage anything provided for safety, health or welfare, or place others at risk at work. A removed guard, a wedged fire door or a tampered safety device are the sort of things the section is aimed at, though the Act speaks in general terms and we have not seen it list examples.

How the employer's duties support the employee's

An employee can only follow instructions they have received, so the employee duties sit alongside employer duties in the same Act. Section 9 requires information for employees to be understandable in form, manner and language, including hazards, risks and protective measures. Section 10 deals with instruction, training and supervision. It says training must be understandable, adapted to new or changed risks and repeated periodically. It is also required on recruitment, on a change of task and when new equipment or technology is introduced. Citizens Information adds that employees must be given paid time off for safety awareness training. Section 8 says that safety, health and welfare measures must not involve any cost to employees. For a wider view of expected training, see our guide to HSA mandatory training requirements in Ireland.

Section 11 adds a protective rule. In serious, imminent and unavoidable danger, employers must take steps so that employees can stop work and move to a safe place, and an employee who does so is not to be penalised for it. The Authority's 2005 short guide to the Act similarly notes that employees cannot be penalised for following safety laws or raising safety complaints.

What the Authority's guide and Citizens Information add

The Health and Safety Authority's short guide to the Act (published August 2005) summarises employee duties in familiar terms: comply with the law and protect their own safety and health and that of others, do not work under the influence of intoxicants to the point of being a danger, cooperate, avoid improper conduct, take part in training, use machinery, tools, substances and protective equipment properly, and report defects. The Citizens Information page on health and safety at work, last edited on 25 August 2022, gives a similar list in plain language. Both are consistent with the statute text.

A practical approach for employers

The suggestions below are our own, not legal requirements.

• Cover the employee duties in induction, using plain language and the wording of the Act or the Authority's guide, so people know that reporting a hazard is an expectation and not a favour.
• Give a named person or role for reporting faults and unsafe work, and tell staff how to reach them, including staff in different Dublin sites or on shift work.
• Keep a record of who has been told what and who has attended training, because section 13 refers to training the employer reasonably requires.
• Check that training and instructions are in a form each person can understand, as section 9 and section 10 expect.
• Respond to reports visibly. A report that disappears makes the next one less likely.
• Link disciplinary rules to your written policies rather than to a general statement that "safety is everyone's job", and take advice before using any employee duty as the basis for action against a worker.

What these sources do not say

We did not read the penalty provisions on an official page, so this article does not state fines or sentences. The statute pages we opened are the enacted versions and show no "last updated" date, and the Act may have been amended since 2005. Nor does the Act, as we read it, set a particular frequency for refresher training in section 13. For details of how an inspector may enforce the Act against an employer, see our guide to HSA improvement and prohibition notices. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Learnsignal's offices are off Baggot Street in Dublin, and we offer in-person training from there. For current details, see our CPD pages.

Frequently asked questions

Do employees have legal duties under Irish health and safety law?

Yes. Section 13 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 sets out duties for employees while at work, including taking reasonable care, cooperating, attending training and reporting dangers.

Must an employee report a hazard?

Section 13 requires employees to report to the employer, or another appropriate person, promptly, work that could endanger anyone, defects in the workplace, systems of work, articles or substances, and breaches of the relevant legal requirements, where they become aware of them.

Can an employer require an employee to attend safety training?

Section 13 requires employees to attend training that the employer reasonably requires or that is prescribed and, as appropriate, to undergo the related assessment. Citizens Information says employees must be given paid time off for safety awareness training.

Do the duties apply to temporary and fixed-term staff?

The Act's definition of employee includes fixed-term and temporary employees, and section 8 applies the employer's duties to their use of those workers' services.

In short, the Act makes safety a shared responsibility: employers must provide information, training and a safe system, and employees must take care, cooperate and speak up.