Welcome to the new workplace health and safety environment
4 April 2016
The Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum welcomes the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA), which came into force
today.
The law aims to reduce the human and financial toll of people being killed or harmed at work, says Forum Executive
Director Francois Barton.
“There’s been some scare-mongering in the media about HSWA – including stories about fear of personal liability
prompting schools to ban tree-climbing and clubs to remove coat hooks.
“These reports are disappointing, because our new health and safety regime actually supports businesses to focus on the
big issues, not things like tree-climbing and paper cuts.”
HSWA strongly emphasises proactive management of critical risks – the things that can kill or seriously hurt people,
Francois says.
WorkSafe has reinforced this message, saying its regulatory focus will also be on preventing fatalities and serious
harm.
“The Forum supports HSWA’s focus on critical risk because that’s what’s going to improve New Zealand’s current poor
performance on workplace health and safety. We look forward to WorkSafe supporting businesses to come to grips with the
new law, and also to it holding people and organisations to account when they blatantly fail to look after their
workers.”
HSWA is a major milestone in New Zealand’s safety journey and the Forum, he says.
“It is crucial that all business leaders take on board the message HSWA sends that we need to get better at health and
safety. As business leaders, our actions and words can have a huge influence on the health and safety of our businesses,
our industries and our communities.”
ends