Employers have a series of duties to make sure that employees' work will not harm their health and safety. Employees also have to duty to keep themselves safe.

The Act confirms the right of employees to refuse to do work if they think it is likely to seriously harm them.

If an employee refuses to do work on this ground, the first step is to try and discuss the problem with the employer. If the problem isn't resolved, and the employee still reasonably believes the work is likely to harm him or her, then the employee can continue to refuse to do the work. If the problem becomes more of a relationship issue than a health and safety issue the mediation services of DoL can help.

If the employee's work is inherently dangerous, such as firefighting, then the employee may refuse to work only if the danger of harm has become greater than what it usually is.

Employees who refuse to work on these grounds must still do any other work that is part of their job that the employer asks them to do.

Go to:

• definition of serious harm
• Fact sheet: The Right to Refuse Dangerous Workpdf file [size: 162KB]