Health and Safety 101

    • Health and Safety Act 2015

    • WorkSafe NZ

    • Identifying and managing Risk

    • Key health and safety regulation

    • Reporting hazards

    • Health and Safety Pre Qualifications

      • Health and Safety Pre Qualification - Sitewise

      • Health and Safety Pre Qualification - SHE Prequal

      • Health and Safety Pre Qualification - Tōtika

Health & Safety Act 2015

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 Risks to health and safety must be eliminated or minimised so far as is REASONABLY PRACTICABLE.

Key Elements of the Health & Safety Act 2015

  • PCBU - (person conducting a business or undertaking) is a key new term – the PCBU has the 'primary duty of care' to ensure the safety of workers and anyone affected by its work. Usually a PCBU is the company but can be a person.

  • DUE DILIGENCE FOR OFFICERS - the Act places more legal responsibility on directors and executives of a PCBU to manage risks and keep people safe.

  • WORKER PARTICIPATION - a stronger emphasis on worker participation and engagement to ensure that workers are active with health and safety.

  • SAFETY IS EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY - no one can 'opt out' and safety is everyone's responsibility. All parties from executives to workers have health and safety responsibilities.

  • RISK MANAGEMENT - shifts the focus from hazard identification and control to proactively identifying and managing risks

  • STRONGER FINES AND PENALTIES - HSWA significantly increases the category of offences.

WorkSafe NZ

Compliance - As a business and employer there are health and safety requirements that you must legally follow to ensure the safety of those around you. 

WorkSafe NZ  - The Government empowered dedicated taskforce to ensure Health & Safety compliance and enforcement.

Involving Workers in H&S - Engage with your workers on health and safety matters that may directly affect them. Have practices that give your workers reasonable opportunities to participate effectively in improving health and safety. They can provide technical and operational knowledge on identifying, assessing and eliminating/minimising risks.

The costs of workplace injuries to New Zealand business are substantial – ACC pay more than $100 million dollars per year in the construction sector. The direct and indirect costs of all workplace injuries in New Zealand are over $1.3 billion.

The majority of injuries in the construction sector occur from falls or falling objects, or while using power tools. Hearing loss is common. Hazardous materials such as lead paint, wood and cement dust and solvents can be responsible for respiratory and other health-related problems.

Identifying and managing risk

There are certain risks that must be dealt with in a certain way. These are specified in the health and safety regulations.  If the risk is not one specified in regulations, you decide how to manage the risk. The hierarchy of controls diagram shows how you might go about managing potential or perceived risk.

Key health and safety regulation

Below is a table that shows the Health and Safety Regulations in NZ for the workplace. Make sure to be aware and adhere to the following:

Reporting hazards ‘notifiable events’

If something goes wrong you must report it to WorkSafe NZ. These are the Notifiable Events.

An uncontrolled incident which did or could have presented serious risk to someone.

An injury including death, illness or any injury which either requires treatment other than just first aid or medical treatment within 48 hours of the incident.

Uncontrolled spillages, fires, explosions, gas escape or leakage and any uncontrolled falling of anything from height.

Electrical shock.

Health and safety pre-qualification

Going through a pre-qualification process helps to determine how well your business manages health and safety. Once you become pre-qualified it shows you meet industry standards of ensuring your business is taking all steps as far as reasonably practicable to eliminate or reduce hazards. In order to get the certification your organisation must submit documented evidence that shows how you meet the standard. This includes things like policies, processes, procedures, standard operating procedures, employee handbooks, plans, certificates, registers, logs etc.

Below outlines different levels of health and safety pre qualification and different providers.

Pre-qualification: Sitewise

Obtain a snapshot of your health and safety system performance (approx. 12 questions).

Rated gold, green, amber, red.

Approx. $210 + GST (renew annually)

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS INCLUDE:

  • Insurance policy information

  • Health & safety policy and procedures

  • Health & safety meetings

  • Accident/incident reporting and investigation

  • Health monitoring & performance

  • Inspections

  • Training & qualifications

  • Employee & subcontractor engagement

  • Hazard management

Pre-qualification: SHE Prequal

Evaluation services, measured against 45001 & best standard practices (approx 30 questions).

No pass or fail. Scoring system used. Over 80% is considered a 5-star rating.

Approx. $280 - $1025 + GST (renew every 2 year)

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS INCLUDE:

  • H&S Policy

  • Worker Inductions

  • Hazard-Risk Management

  • Participation & Communication

  • Health monitoring & performance

  • Emergency Planning

  • Training & Competency

  • Injury Prevention Management

  • Subcontractor Management

  • High Risk Tasks

  • Insurances

Pre-qualification: Tōtika

Tōtika has been designed for use specifically in construction (approx 55 questions). Current ISO 45001 certification. A scoring system with a 60% pass mark as developing, anything less will be a fail.

Approx. $600 - $1500 + GST (renew annually)

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS INCLUDE:

SKILLS, TRAINING, COMPETENCY, AND SUPERVISION

  • Training and Competence Processes

  • Induction

  • Foundation Training and Assessment

  • Hazardous Work Training, Licenses and Certifications

  • Supervision of Vulnerable Workers

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

  • Process for Monitoring of Health Risk

  • Drugs and Alcohol

  • Stress, Fatigue and Mental Wellbeing

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT & RESPONSE

  • Emergency Processes

  • Specialist Emergency Response

COMMUNICATION, ENGAGEMENT, AND PARTICIPATION

  • Open Communication

  • Worker Engagement & Participation

  • Meetings

HAZARD/RISK IDENTIFICATION AND PROVISION OF EFFECTIVE CONTROLS

  • Hazard/Risk Identification & Risk Control Processes.

  • Hazard/Risk Control Communication

  • Hazard/Risk Control Monitoring

  • Safe Work Instruction

  • PPE

SUB-CONTRACTORS AND PCBU’S

  • Contractor Management Process

  • Sub-Contractor Engagement

  • Cooperation, Communication & Consultation with subcontractors

  • Performance Monitoring

  • Cooperation, Communication & Consultation with other PCBU’s

PLANT & EQUIPMENT

  • Maintenance

  • Operation

HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES

  • Management

  • Inventory

  • Safety Data Sheets and Labelling

  • Hazardous Substance Training

H&S PERFORMANCE HISTORY

  • Prosecution or Convictions

  • Enforcement Action

  • Investigations

  • Environmental Offences

  • Awards and Recognitions

LEADERSHIP AND COMMITMENT 

  • H&S Policy

  • Communication

  • Accountabilities

  • Dealing with H&S Issues

  • Demonstrating Active Commitment

  • Considering H&S Impacts

EVENT REPORTING, RECORDING, AND INVESTIGATION

  • Event Recording, Reporting and Investigation Procedure

  • Investigation

  • WorkSafe Notification

  • Communication and Follow-up

PROCESSES TO SUPPORT HEALTH AND SAFETY

  • Documented System and Procedures

  • Competent H&S Advice

  • Resourcing H&S

  • Site Specific H&S Plans

  • Continuous Improvement

  • Health and Safety Performance Goals

  • Monitoring Health and Safety Performance

  • H&S Audit

HEALTH AND SAFETY INSPECTIONS

  • Work site H&S Inspection Processes

  • Frequency of Inspections