Earlier this week I read an article which talked about the bureaucratic nightmare that the amended health & safety at work bill is turning out to be for businesses.  Apparantly there has been a significant increase in worried people contacting insurance companies  looking at taking out more insurance as a way to protect themselves against what they don't know about.  

This worry tends to penetrate further into organisations and can have a negative effect on an organisations daily operation and those who provide services/products to it.   A good example was recently a personal friend,  who happens to be a potter of considerable skill, was asked to run a class for a local Hawke's Bay pottery group to teach adult students, new to pottery,  on how to use a potters wheel. 

This was all well and good until she was told that she would be required  to give a 10 minute lecture on health and safety before she began the class! 

Now it would seem that here is an organisation that was keen to deflect their health and safety responsibilities  to a third party and so take advantage of the uncertainty around what the reality of the new laws actually are.  Their premises, their responsibilty; not a good look for the pottery group really. 

An interesting comment to from health and safety advisor Gordon Anderson, he said,  " What so many never consider is the name of the HSWA Act it's the The Health and Safety at Work Act. It’s not about homes, there’s too much misinformation and misinformed people out there making up their own rules based on their lack of understanding." 

from the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk - Max Farndale May 12, 2016.

Mr Wright said nobody really knows what their requirements and responsibilities are under the new Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

said today he has been inundated with inquiries from worried people who don't understand the legislation and are looking at more insurance as a way to protect themselves against what they don't know.

"I guess you could say that people are trying to insure their way through a bureaucratic minefield."

"We've had calls from paint and panel beater shops, clothing manufacturers, landlords and tradesmen, and they're all viewing the act like it's a poisonous snake – but some things they believe they need to do are just too cost prohibitive or not applicable.