Your role in work health and safety
No matter the industry, safety in the workplace is everyone's responsibility. It’s important to work together to make sure everyone is healthy and safe.
What you must do
Work health and safety law says that as an employee, you must work safely. This applies to all workers, whether they have a disability or not. This means you must:
- act responsibly
- take care of yourself and others
- work together with your employer on work health and safety issues.
Each industry has its own work health and safety requirements. To stay on top of this, you can:
- talk to your employer about what is expected in your workplace
- make sure you keep up to date with any health and safety training – your employer should provide training
- know about the workplace health and safety law in your state or territory.
For more information about laws in your area, visit the Safe Work Australia website.
Planning to work from home?
If you are planning to work from home, your employer might want to do a work health and safety check before you start. See our Flexible working arrangements page for more on working from home.
What your employer must do
Your employer has responsibilities too. They must:
- provide a safe and healthy workplace to protect employees from injury or harm
- provide health and safety training
- make sure that all employees are covered by workers compensation insurance
- help employees return to work safely, if they experience a work-related injury.
Find out more about workplace injuries, illness and compensation at Workers compensation.
Changes to support employees with disability
For employees with disability, employers must also make any changes to the workplace to make sure they can work safely. For example, employers might:
- make changes to work areas, like adding ramps or better lighting
- provide equipment and technology
- make any changes to processes.
Employers should also provide health and safety training and information in formats that are accessible to all employees.
You may be able to get funding to cover the costs of changes to the workplace through the Employment Assistance Fund (EAF). For all the details, go to Funding for changes in the workplace.
For more on types of workplace changes that could support you at work, see Changing your work area and tasks.
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