Options for the duty of a person conducting a business or undertaking
Option one –Provide for:
a specific, separate duty of care by employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of:
employees; and
persons other than employees
is not put at risk from the conduct of the undertaking of the employer;142
together with a separate duty of care by self-employed persons to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health or safety of others is not put at risk from the conduct of the undertaking of the self-employed person.143
Option two – Similar to the first option, except that it combines the two duties of care into a single section.
This option would place a duty of care on employers and self-employed persons to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health or safety of:
employees of the employer; and
other persons
is not put at risk from the conduct of the undertaking of the employer or self-employed person.144
Option three – Similar to the second option, but would:
replace references to the employer and self-employed person with a reference to a person conducting a business or undertaking; and
provide that the duty of care would be owed to a broad category of ‘workers’ and others.145
This option would thereby provide simply that a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health or safety of workers engaged in work as part of the conduct of the undertaking, and others, is not put at risk from the conduct of the undertaking.
Option four – Similar to the third option, except that it would provide for the duty of care to be owed by the person conducting the business or undertaking to ‘all persons’, with no specific reference to ‘workers’.146
