The Beehive, Wellington, Sunday 3 April 2016 - The journey towards better health and safety practices in the workplace starts tomorrow with the new Health and Safety at Work Act coming into force, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse.
“This is the first major reform of workplace health and safety in more than 20 years and strikes the balance between ensuring workplaces are safe without imposing unnecessary red tape on business,” says Mr Woodhouse.
“The new law makes it clear that everyone has a role to play in health and safety. It modernises our approach to health and safety and recognises the complexity of 21st century workplaces by encouraging more communication and co-operation, both within and between businesses.
“The Health and Safety at Work Act does not require business to eliminate all risks in the workplace at any cost - that’s not realistic. But it does require that risks are dealt with in a sensible and proportionate way by those who are best placed to influence or control work.”
Key features of the Act include:
- Requiring businesses to identify work-related risks and do what is ‘reasonably practicable’ to eliminate or manage them
- Ensuring everyone from company directors to casual labourers have health and safety responsibilities that reflect their ability to influence or control work
- A new requirement for all businesses to have effective worker engagement and participation processes for health and safety matters
- A new duty on company officers to exercise due diligence when it comes to health and safety.
“The Government is committed to keeping Kiwi workers safe and reducing our unacceptable workplace death and injury toll. The changes made in this new Act will help in achieving our goal of a 25 per cent reduction in workplace death and injuries by 2020,” says Mr Woodhouse.
“However, the Act is not a silver bullet for New Zealand’s health and safety challenges. Achieving lasting change will require leadership and an attitude change from businesses and workers alike.
“This is the first step in the journey towards making our workplaces safer and ensuring that everyone returns home from work healthy and safe each day.”
For more information visit www.worksafe.govt.nz/hswa
