Employee participation systems provide a clear process for employers and employees to co-operate in good faith on health and safety matters.

The Act requires some workplaces to develop an 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.

If a system is required, employers, employees and any unions representing them must co-operate to develop, implement and maintain a system that sets out how the employer will provide opportunities for employees to participate in the ongoing improvement of health and safety.

The Act allows each workplace to develop a system that suits it, but to keep it relevant any system must include a process for review. Examples of the types of things that may be included are:

• the election of employees to act as health and safety representatives, either as individuals or as part of a health and safety committee
• different health and safety representatives or committees to represent different types of work or different places of work
• how many days' paid leave will be available for health and safety representatives to undertake health and safety training.

Even where an employee participation system is not required under the Act, employers still have a general duty to provide reasonable opportunities for employees to participate in processes for health and safety at work.

Go to

• Training for health and safety representatives
• The 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]