ABSTRACT
This chapter is about managers in businesses, or other organizations, setting out clear responsibilities and lines of communications for everyone in the enterprise. The policy sets the direction for health and safety within the enterprise and forms the written intentions of the principals or directors of the business. The organization needs to be clearly communicated and people need to know what they are responsible for in the day-to-day operations. A vague statement that ‘everyone is responsible for health and safety’ is misleading and fudges the real issues. Everyone is responsible (Figure 3.1), but management in particular. There is no equality of responsibility under law between those who provide direction and create policy and those who are employed to follow. Principals, or employers in terms of the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act, have substantially more responsibility than employees.
