NZPPI Member Workplace Health and Safety Guide

Untitled Document

NZPPI today released its recently developed guidance to assist members develop or refine their Workplace Health and Safety policies and procedures. It’s a wireframe of a complete system with a series of questions to help businesses as they work through their system.

And it’s not just for those who have yet to complete their system, the guidance, which was developed in collaboration with OSHbox, will assist those more advanced in their implementation of Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The Guide was distributed to members by email late in December 2016 and is available from the office, office@nzppi.co.nz.

It joins joins NZPPI’s EMA membership deal as part of a revamped member-exclusive benefits package. More on membership here

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSAW Act) replaces the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSE Act). The principal objective of the Act is to provide a balanced framework to secure the health and safety of Workers and workplaces by:

protecting Workers and other persons against harm to their health, safety, and welfare by eliminating or minimising risks arising from work or from prescribed high-risk plant; and
providing for fair and effective workplace representation, consultation, co-operation, and resolution of issues in relation to work health and safety; and
encouraging unions and employer organisations to take a constructive role in promoting improvements in work health and safety practices, and assisting PCBUs and Workers to achieve a healthier and safer working environment; and
promoting the provision of advice, information, education, and training in relation to work health and safety; and
securing compliance with this through effective and appropriate compliance and enforcement measures; and
ensuring appropriate scrutiny and review of actions taken by persons performing functions or exercising powers under the Act; and
providing a framework for continuous improvement and progressively higher standards of work health and safety.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is supported by regulations, guidelines and codes of practice which control specific health and safety issues.

The Act does not tell businesses specifically how to make their workplace safe; rather, it requires that each entity has done everything that is reasonably practicable to make work safe. It recognises that all parties involved in the work undertaken and each workplace (including Officers, Workers, Contractors and Volunteers) have the best knowledge about the specific risks arising from the work undertaken, and are best placed to provide solutions about how to manage those risks.

The information in this guide is designed to help you as a PCBU, and your Officers, Workers, Contractors, Volunteers and Others to better understand and fulfil your roles and responsibilities, and begin creating policies and procedures around those.