Unlocking Employment Law

16Health and safety law

Aims and Objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• ■ Understand the non-delegable nature of the employer’s common law duty to his employees
• ■ Understand the different aspects of the common law duty
• ■ Understand the character and scope of the common law duty
• ■ Understand the available defences to the common law duty
• ■ Understand how the duty has developed in the case of stress at work, and harassment and bullying
• ■ Understand the basic statutory duties
• ■ Understand the development of the duty through EU law
• ■ Be able to critically analyse the area
• ■ Be able to apply the law to factual situations and reach conclusions

16.1 Introduction: the significance of health and safety at work

According to the Health ...