Diversity

Our workforce is diverse, made up of people of different ages and cultures, with different skills and experience, who work under different employment arrangements. It is important that work health and safety strategies take this diversity into account.

We're committed to providing materials relevant to different cultures, languages and literacy levels.

Diversity for employers

If you’re an employer, you need to provide the appropriate level of information, induction, training and supervision for all your workers and talk and consult with them about work health and safety.

However, there are some workers who might be at greater risk of injury or illness while working. They may need extra support and consideration to stay healthy and safe at work. These workers may include:

  • workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
  • workers engaged through labour hire organisations
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers
  • workers with disabilities
  • pregnant workers
  • migrant workers
  • young workers.
Employer responsibilities

If you're an employer you must provide:

  • a safe and healthy workplace
  • safe equipment, structures, and systems of work
  • adequate workplace amenities and facilities
  • information, training and supervision
  • the opportunity for workers to talk about work health and safety.

Its important to remember that workers are not just employees and can include other classes of workers such as contractors, apprentices and work experience students.

See all employer responsibilities and obligations in simple, plain English.

Diversity for workers

If you’re a worker, you also have a responsibility to take care of yourself and others around you.

You must follow any reasonable health and safety instructions from your employer.

Worker responsibilities

It is important that you:

  • work safely
  • follow instructions
  • ask if you’re not sure how to safely perform the work
  • use personal protective equipment (PPE) in the way you were trained and instructed to use it
  • report injuries and unsafe and unhealthy situations to your supervisor or to your health and safety representative (HSR).

See all worker responsibilities and obligations in simple, plain English

Your rights at work fact sheet

We provide a your rights at work fact sheet which explains the basic responsibilities of the worker and the employer.

It is also available in Arabic, Korean, Hindi, Filipino, Chinese and Malay.

Labour hire workers

We have detailed information for workers employed through external labour hire organisations in our Legal obligations area.

Young workers

In NSW, there are more than half a million young people, aged between 14 and 24 years, who have entered the workforce. They may be working full time in an apprenticeship or traineeship or on a part time or casual basis while they are still at school. Some young people are also required to do work placements as part of their university course.

If you’re an employer, you must remember that young workers have no, or limited, work experience. Everything they do is new and they may not understand the risks of what they are doing or know how to protect themselves from injury. This means that they need extra support to be shown appropriate work practices and behaviours.

By investing time and resources in them from their first day in the job, young workers are more likely to remain healthy and safe throughout their working life and contribute to a happier and more efficient work environment.

If you’re a young worker, it’s important that you know your workplace health and safety rights and obligations. Your manager must give you appropriate training, supervision, information and equipment to ensure you can work safely. You should speak up if you think you could be hurt at work. We want you to return home to your family and friends injury-free every day.

Other sources of information

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