What I need to know.
Your employer has a legal duty to eliminate or reduce, so far as is reasonably practicable, the risk to anyone in their workplace from exposure to airborne asbestos fibres.
Your employer must:
- provide you with necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to enable you to perform your work in a way that is safe and without risk to health
- consult with you and any other employees, including your health and safety representative (if any), on any matters related to health or safety that directly affects, or is likely to directly affect you
- make the asbestos register readily accessible to employees
- provide each applicant who applies for employment that involves carrying out an asbestos-related activity with information about the nature of the hazard and the risks to health associated with exposure to airborne asbestos fibres.
If any part of your work is in area with asbestos which could be disturbed, your employer needs to conduct risk assessments and must implement risk control measures, so far as is reasonably practicable, according to the hierarchy of control set out in the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations).
As an employee, you have a general duty to:
- take reasonable care for your own health and safety, and that of others who may be affected by your work
- cooperate with your employer's efforts to make the workplace safe.
This may include:
- following workplace policies and procedures
- using equipment correctly
- attending health and safety training
- helping to identify hazards and implementing risk control measures.
If you are concerned about an asbestos issue in your workplace, you should talk to your employer or health and safety representative. If you still have concerns after speaking to your employer or health and safety representative, you can contact the WorkSafe Advisory Service on 1800 136 089.
You can find out more about your employer's asbestos responsibilities in:
- Employers who own their premises(opens in a new window)
- Employers who don't own their premises(opens in a new window)
Note: If you are an employee of a licensed asbestos removalist, the legislation includes specific duties further to the above that your employer must undertake for their employees. These can be found in Part 4.4 (Asbestos) of the OHS Regulations.
Updated