The scope of the employees covered by the Act will be extended to cover almost every workplace, whether on board an aeroplane, a mobile business, work experience students or employees being loaned to other workplaces.
The changes will see a greater duty on employers to ensure that protective clothing and equipment is provided to staff, and to ensure that the workplace environment is as safe as it can be.
Another change that has been made that will affect employers’ duties is that stress and fatigue have been highlighted as potential hazards. For more information on this topic, click here.
If a business hires equipment, it now has a specific statutory duty to ensure that the equipment is safe for its intended use. However, this is not a new concept, as a company could always be liable for hiring out faulty equipment when they knew or should have known that it was not safe. It is now just spelled out as a legal duty.
If you are self-employed, you must record all accidents and notify Occupational Safety and Health of any serious harm accidents.
Employee participation
One new focus that the Amendment Act brings is the introduction of greater employee participation on health and safety issues. Employers must now make sure that all employees have reasonable opportunity to provide input in health and safety issues, regardless of the size of the business. This is a sensible concept, as employees are on ‘the shop floor’ and may be in a better position to let employers know of potential hazards before they have the opportunity to cause damage.
If a business has more than 30 employees, they must develop an employee participation system. If they have less than 30 they do not have to, unless one or more of the employees requests it.
Developing a system includes electing employees as health and safety representatives, either as individuals or as a committee. There is a statutory requirement for these representatives to have 2 days paid leave per year to attend an approved health and safety course. Once the system is established, the two days requirement may be varied by agreement between the employer and employees.
The system must also contain a process for review. This is to ensure that the concerns are being dealt with effectively, and to keep the system up to date.
Apart from the above requirements, the system can be varied to suit each individual workplace. It may outline such issues as:
- Whether the employees want to have a health and safety committee, or just individuals responsible for health and safety issues,
- How many days paid leave the representatives should have to attend courses
- The process whereby the employees participation is conveyed to the employers.
What happens if a system is not set up at all?
If a workplace is unable to come up with a system within 6 months, the Act sets out a default employee participation system to be followed.
If no system is followed, the employer is liable for a fine of $800 to $4000. It will be an offence to insure against these fines.
The emphasis is on staff and employers working together in good faith to create a good, safe workplace environment. If you have any concerns or questions about creating a system, please do not hesitate to contact Mary-Jane Thomas.
