The subject of the article is the legal mechanism of the employer's duty to provide a safety and health protection. The goal is the legal assessment of new regulatory approaches to introducing the self-regulation in the area concerned. The study was conducted with general and special methods of legal science; the main points of this research should be refl ected in the future act on self-regulation in the fi eld of safety and health protection. The results can be used to improve existing legislative initiatives and to continue a systematic regulation of safety and health protection.