Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Veldenhas welcomed the passing of the first reading of theHealth and Safety at Work Amendment Bill, whichwillreformNew Zealand’s workhealth and safety law and regulations.

“The changes in this Bill willmake it easier toruna business in New Zealandbyincreasing certainty and removing fear, helping to ease costs of compliance and improve safety outcomes,” says Ms van Velden.

The Bill addresses concerns businesses had in two key ways. First, by increasing available guidance and support through a strengthening of Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) giving businesses access to guidance that is tailored to their own industries and easier to keep up to date than regulations.

“ACOPs will now act as ‘safe harbours’ for compliance, meaning that if a business complies with their sector’s ACOP, they have done enough to meet their health and safety requirements.

“Secondly, the Bill will clarify WorkSafe’s functions.

“A major theme in the feedback we received from businesses was that they don’t know what they need to do to manage their risks and meet their obligations. I also heard concerns about a lack of guidance, regulations not keeping pace with best practice, and uncertainty about WorkSafe’s approach as the regulator arising due to inconsistency and heavy-handedness in punishment.

“This all results in a feeling of fear and uncertainty that leads businesses to take unnecessary actions to protect themselves, creating more costs to the business without actually making workers any safer.

“The Bill will require WorkSafe to move from an approach of expecting everyone to address every possible risk, towards one in which WorkSafe provides guidance on the critical risks a workplace must address to meet their obligations under the Act.

“I expect this will significantly help businesses to understand their responsibilities and give clarity about the actions they should take to protect their workers,” says Ms van Velden.

“This new focus will make WorkSafe a more consistent and helpful agency, so that businesses can get the support they need to keep workers safe, without wasting resources on external consultants or excessive paperwork compliance.

“I’m looking forward to hearing feedback, particularly around whether these changes are clear and workable, once the Bill opens for submissions at select committee.

“Today is a win for practical,common-sensechangesthat will set businesses up for success in keeping people safe,” says Ms van Velden.

Notes:

Other changes include:

• Creating a carve-out for small, low-risk businesses from general Health and Safety at Work Act requirements. These businesses will only have to manage critical risks and provide basic facilities to ensure worker welfare.
• Clarifying what a director’s health and safety due diligence duty involves and where it stops.
• Many directors think they need to do more than they should, and directors and management are also duplicating work. This change clarifies that the day-to-day management of health and safety risks is to be left to managers so directors can focus on governance.
• Clarifying that businesses do not owe health and safety duties to individuals engaging in recreational activities on their land, unless the business has work happening on the same part of the land at the same time.
• This will ensure that landowners will not be responsible if someone is injured on their land while doing recreational activities and that health and safety responsibilities will lie squarely on the organisation running the activities.

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