Employees who do work will have valuable knowledge and experience to contribute to the management of health and safety in their workplace.

The Act requires all employers to allow employees a reasonable opportunity to participate in the improvement of health and safety at work.

In some cases, the employer, employees and any unions representing them must work together to develop a formal employee participation system. These are workplaces where:

• the employer employs 30 or more employees (whether at one single workplace or in a number of places); or
• the employer employs fewer than 30 employees, and one of those employees, or a union representing them, makes a request for an employee participation system.

Employers, employees, and unions must work together in good faith to try and agree a system, using whatever internal and external advice and assistance is needed to agree. This might for example include getting outside help such as from a mediator to work through the issues. If they are unable to agree within 6 months of when they are required to, then the Act sets out a default employee participation system.

Go to

• Matters to include in a participation system
• Functions of health and safety representatives
• Electing health and safety representatives
• Training for health and safety representatives
• Default employee participation system?
• Fact sheet: What is employee participation pdf file [size: 30KB]
• Fact sheet: Employee participation systems pdf file [size: 31KB]
• Fact sheet: Health and safety representatives pdf file [size: 31KB]