Workplace Safety: Employer Responsibilities Under the OSH Act

Occupational Safety and Health Act, Chap. 88:08

Why This Matters

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (Chap. 88:08) places a comprehensive and enforceable duty of care on every employer in Trinidad and Tobago. Under Section 6 of the Act, every employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare at work of all employees. This duty is not qualified by the size of the business, the nature of the industry, or the cost of compliance. It is a baseline legal obligation that applies from the first day the business employs a person.

The phrase ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ does not mean ‘where convenient’ or ‘where affordable’. It means that the employer must take all measures to address a risk unless the cost or difficulty of doing so is grossly disproportionate to the risk itself. In practice, for the risks most commonly encountered in T&T workplaces, the measures required are straightforward and the cost of implementing them is far lower than the cost of the injury, investigation, or prosecution that follows when they are not in place.

Core Employer Duties Under the OSH Act

The following duties are imposed on every employer under the OSH Act and must be met as a minimum standard of compliance.

1. Provision and Maintenance of a Safe Workplace

Every employer must maintain the workplace in a condition that is safe and without risk to health. This includes the physical condition of floors, stairs, passageways, and workstations; the adequacy of lighting and ventilation; the safe storage and handling of materials; and the maintenance of all plant and equipment in a safe working condition. A workplace that is visibly unsafe, with obstructed emergency exits, damaged flooring, inadequate lighting, or poorly maintained equipment, is already in breach of the Act before any injury occurs.

2. Safe Systems of Work

The employer must establish and maintain safe systems of work, documented procedures that define how tasks involving risk are to be performed safely. A safe system of work identifies the hazards associated with a task, specifies the controls that must be in place before the task begins, and sets out the steps to be followed to complete the task without injury. Safe systems of work are particularly important for tasks involving machinery, chemicals, working at height, manual handling, and confined spaces.

3. Provision of Information, Instruction, and Training

The employer must provide every employee with sufficient information, instruction, and training to enable them to perform their work safely. This obligation applies from the first day of employment and must be refreshed whenever the employee’s role changes, new equipment is introduced, or a safety incident reveals a gap in understanding. Training must be documented. An employer who asserts that an employee was trained but cannot produce a training record is in a very weak position before the OSH Authority or the Industrial Court.

4. Written Safety and Health Policy

Every employer with 25 or more employees is required under the OSH Act to prepare a written Safety and Health Policy, to keep it current, and to bring it to the attention of all employees. The policy must set out the employer’s commitment to workplace safety, the arrangements for implementing that commitment, and the responsibilities of managers and employees at every level. A model Health and Safety Policy is included in the Policy Library section at the end of this Part. Employers with fewer than 25 employees are strongly advised to prepare and maintain a policy regardless, both as a management tool and as evidence of the employer’s commitment to safety.

5. Safety and Health Committee

Every employer with 25 or more employees is required to establish a Safety and Health Committee. The Committee’s role is to facilitate cooperation between employer and employees on matters of workplace safety, to assist in the development and review of the Safety and Health Policy, to conduct workplace inspections, to review incident reports, and to make recommendations to management on safety improvements. The Committee must include both employer and employee representatives and must meet at regular intervals. The absence of a Safety and Health Committee in a workplace that meets the threshold is a specific breach of the OSH Act.

6. Reporting to the OSH Authority

Certain categories of workplace incident must be reported to the OSH Authority. These include any accident resulting in the death of an employee, any accident that results in an employee being incapacitated for more than three consecutive days, any dangerous occurrence as defined in the Act, such as a structural collapse, explosion, or release of a hazardous substance, and any occupational disease diagnosed in an employee. The reporting obligation is in addition to the employer’s internal incident recording requirements. Failure to report a notifiable incident to the OSH Authority is a breach of the Act.

Legal Warning The OSH Act provides the OSH Authority with powers of inspection, investigation, and enforcement. An OSH inspector may enter any workplace without prior notice, require the production of records and documents, interview employees, and issue improvement notices or prohibition notices where a breach is identified. A prohibition notice requires the immediate cessation of any activity that the inspector considers to involve a risk of serious personal injury. Non-compliance with a prohibition notice is a criminal offence. An employer who is the subject of an OSH inspection and cannot produce a Safety and Health Policy, training records, risk assessments, or incident reports is exposed to formal enforcement action regardless of whether an injury has actually occurred.

The Safety and Health Committee

For employers at or above the 25-employee threshold, establishing and maintaining an effective Safety and Health Committee is a legal requirement and a genuine asset to the safety management system. A well-functioning Committee provides the employer with direct feedback from employees about safety concerns on the ground, ensures that safety improvements are co-designed with the people most directly affected, and demonstrates to the OSH Authority that the employer takes its obligations seriously.

The Committee should meet at least quarterly and should maintain minutes of every meeting. Agenda items should routinely include a review of any incidents or near misses since the last meeting, a review of outstanding risk assessments, a report on the completion of any recommended safety improvements, and a workplace inspection report. The Committee’s recommendations should be responded to in writing by management within a defined timeframe, typically 30 days, and the response should be recorded in the minutes.

Practical Insight: Employer Risk The most common OSH compliance failure in T&T SMEs is the absence of documented safety systems in workplaces that are otherwise broadly safe. The employer knows the workplace is safe, the employees know the workplace is safe, and no serious incidents have occurred. But when the OSH Authority inspects, often following a minor incident that triggers a routine visit, there is no Safety and Health Policy on file, no training records, no risk assessments, and no incident log. The absence of documentation does not mean the workplace is unsafe; it means the employer cannot demonstrate that it is safe. In enforcement terms, the outcome is the same. Invest two to three days in establishing the documentation framework described in this Part and it will remain a reliable compliance asset for the life of the business.

Template – Safety and Health Committee Terms of Reference

Use this template to formalise the structure and operating arrangements of the Safety and Health Committee. Display the Terms of Reference in the workplace and distribute to all Committee members. Review annually.

Organisation Name
Date Established
Committee Purpose	To facilitate cooperation between employer and employees on all matters relating to occupational safety and health, in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Chap. 88:08)
Membership: Employer Representatives	Names and titles
Membership: Employee Representatives	Names and titles (elected or appointed by employees)
Chairperson
Secretary
Meeting Frequency	Minimum quarterly
Quorum	Minimum _______ members including at least one employer and one employee representative
Standing Agenda Items	1. Incident and near-miss review 2. Risk assessment status 3. Outstanding safety actions 4. Workplace inspection report 5. Any other safety matters raised by members
Management Response Timeframe	30 days from receipt of written recommendation
Review Date