Michael Woodhouse, 27 August 2015

The new health and safety law comes into effect on 4 April 2016.   A final version of the Bill can be seen here.  In the meantime here are five things you can do now:

On 27 August 2015, Parliament passed the health and safety reform legislation. Introduced on 10 March 2014, the Health and Safety Reform Bill reforms New Zealand’s workplace health and safety system. Its main purpose is to provide for a balanced framework to secure the health and safety system that has already resulted in the establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand. The new health and safety at work regime replaces the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and the Machinery Act 1950.

This is one of the most difficult aspects of a disciplinary process, and is the part that is most closely scrutinised by the Authority or the Court.  In order for any disciplinary action to be justifiable in terms of the Employment Relations Act 2000, the outcome needs to be considered consistent with “what a fair and reasonable employer could do in all the circumstances” – see the test of justification under s 103A.

Forecasts indicate that labour costs are expected to increase only slowly to 2.2 percent for the year ending June 2017.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered three Hawke’s Bay horticulture contractor businesses to pay a total of $22,500 in penalties for failure to provide employment records to the Labour Inspector.

The Employment Court recently made two clear statements about costs awards: