Why Do We Have RSA Courses? Duty of Care Explained  

Article by Mia

More than just the law

If you ask most frontline alcohol service employees (and indeed, the managers of those employees and license holders of the premises they work in) the reason that they got their RSA online, most will tell you that they got it because the law required it. However, there are much bigger concepts underpinning that law that requires you to complete an RSA course, online or otherwise. The main legal, and indeed social, concept is that of duty of care. Today we explain the idea of having a duty of care, and why both the licensed premises and the employees of that premises have one to the customers.

What Is a Duty of Care?The most basic definition of a duty of care is:

A legal obligation imposed on an individual to adhere to a reasonable standard of care, while performing acts that have the potential to harm others.

Your RSA course online will introduce you to the concept of duty of care, and we’ll go into a little more detail here.

When Do People Have a Duty of Care?There are many instances when it is accepted that people have a duty of care towards others. Living in Australia, you probably take it for granted that a school that you pay to attend will take reasonable steps to keep you safe, that your employer will do the same, and that any business which you enter has also taken steps to ensure your safety. By the same token, we wouldn