The Health and Safety at Work Act
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) is New Zealand’s workplace health and safety law.
It introduces new responsibilities for managing the work-related risks that could cause serious injury, illness or even death. HSWA recognises that to improve our poor health and safety performance we all need to work together. Government, businesses and workers must establish better leadership, participation in, and accountability for people’s health and safety.
Everyone who goes to work should come home healthy and safe. To achieve this, HSWA provides a new way of thinking.
The Health and Safety at Work Act:
- ensures everyone has a role to play- makes everyone’s responsibilities clear
- focuses on managing work risk
- requires those who create the risk to manage the risk
- requires businesses to engage with workers and enable them to actively participate in health and safety
- allows flexibility in managing health and safety risks.