Health And Safety Is Everyone’s Responsibility

The passing of the Health and Safety Reform Bill at the end of last month, marked an important step along the path toward safer workplaces. The much delayed and controversial Bill will come into effect from 4 April 2016. Until then, the current Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 remains in force. But the clear message from the government was that legislation is only one part of the picture, and health and safety is everybody's responsibility.

The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hon Paul Goldsmith, said during the bills' third reading in Parliament, "This legislation will play a major role in helping us to meet our target of reducing New Zealand's workplace death toll by 25 percent by 2020. But robust and effective legislation is only one part of this. We all need to change how we see our involvement and responsibility for work health and safety to truly have a lasting shift in our safety culture."

He said the legislation recognised the complexity of modern working arrangements, made up of diverse work circumstances and moving away from a narrow employer-employee focus.

"This legislation ensures that everyone, irrespective of their roles within the workplace, has an appropriate level of obligation to make sure their health and safety and that of others is not adversely affected by their work."

The Minister said this obligation began with the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), who must do what they reasonably could to help workers remain in good health and conduct their work in a safe environment. All PCBUs are obliged under the new legislation to engage with their workers and to have effective, ongoing participation practices.

A series of regulations are being developed to support the new Health and Safety at Work Act. These include:

• General risk and workplace management
• Major Hazard Facilities
• Asbestos
• Engagement, worker participation and representation (available shortly for public consultation)

Things you can do now

Once the regulations are finalised, government regulator WorkSafe will issue formal guidance to support the Act and regulations. This formal guidance will start to become available in 2016.

In the meantime here are five things they advise you to do now:

• Familiarise yourself with the key concepts of the legislation
• Review your health and safety practices
• Identify health and safety risks in your business and take steps to prevent these from causing harm
• Lead by example
• Make health and safety part of your workplace culture

Lessons from Australia

New Zealand's new health and safety law is based on legislation from Australia, where there has been a 16 percent reduction in work-related deaths since the law changed in 2012. Today, workplace deaths in Australia are at their lowest level in 11 years.

Under that legislation, the Supreme Court of South Australia recently handed down a 12 year manslaughter sentence to a transport operator boss who repeatedly ignored warnings about faulty brakes in one of his trucks. As a result, one of his drivers died when the truck's brakes failed. This ruling shows the importance of the chain of responsibility, now a cornerstone of the New Zealand legislation.

With New Zealand's new health and safety laws coming into effect on 4 April 2016, businesses have time to get up to speed, and get compliant – but they need to get moving. Download our free e-book now to learn more about the health and safety law changes and how to get compliant.