Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young has applauded the first reading of the incoming Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill through New Zealand parliament, saying it will help provide clarity around retailers’ health and safety obligations.
The proposed Bill, introduced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden, aims to increase available guidance and support by strengthening the Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs), giving businesses access to guidance tailored to their industries.
“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,” van Velden said.
“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.
Young concurred, saying several Retail NZ members have expressed confusion in the past about health and safety guidance.
“The legislation would also mean small businesses would not be required to meet the same Health and Safety requirements as larger companies,” Young added. “We look forward to consulting on this further with our members, to help formulate our submission on this Bill.
“We are encouraged that this Government has turned its focus to updating Workplace Health and Safety legislation, with staff and customer safety an issue retailers take seriously.”
The Bill includes other changes, such as clarifying what a director’s health and safety due diligence duty involves and where it stops. It also clarifies 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.