An employer's duty to provide a safe system of work does not extend to guarding against casual acts of folly by employees who voluntarily intervene in tasks to which they are not assigned, particularly where safe alternatives are available. Where an employee's breach of contract is the effective cause of injury and the employer's breach merely provides the occasion, the employee's contractual claim fails on causation grounds notwithstanding Astley v Austrust. The BP Refinery/Codelfa tests for implied terms do not apply to terms implied by operation of law into employment contracts, such as the employee's duty to exercise due care and skill.
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