Keeping Work Safe Enforcement Policy

Author: Alan Cooper

The Department of Labour has developed this policy statement in response to consultation through the Government’s 2006-07 Quality Regulation Review. The review asked businesses about how they saw regulation affecting their business. Its findings highlighted concerns and uncertainty about the sorts of responses they could expect from health and safety inspectors if there was an inspection, workplace injury, complaint or other health and safety-related incident in their places of work. The review also told us that businesses and workers value consistency and transparency highly when it comes to all aspects of enforcement and that a lack of information about enforcement creates uncertainty and makes it harder to both anticipate and respond to interactions with the Department. This policy statement is intended to fill that gap.



New Zealand’s workplaces are many and varied, and this policy statement does not attempt to describe every enforcement situation or response by the Department of Labour. Instead, it sets out key principles and processes for enforcing the Act and describes what “duty-holders” (i.e. those people with duties under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 – which includes employers, workers, suppliers and a range of other people involved in workplaces) can expect in response to a range of situations. The principles described within this policy statement apply to all health and safety related engagements, including those concerning the management of hazardous substances in a place of work. Detailed explanation regarding the application of specific enforcement tools prescribed by the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 is to be provided in a separate policy statement.



The object of the Health and Safety in Employment Act is not to achieve enforcement or prosecutions, but to promote excellent health and safety management in New Zealand places of work. Being clearer about how we undertake our enforcement role is crucial in creating an atmosphere of understanding, trust and collaboration. This policy statement is one of the ways we are meeting the changing needs of New Zealand’s workplaces now and into the future.

All publications in subject category: Employment policy / active labour market policy

     · A report card on the New Zealand labour market
     · Displacement Effects of Active Labour Market Policy
     · Employment Relationship Problems: Costs, Benefits and Choices
     · Equality: Outcomes or Opportunities? A Review of the Literature
     · Evidence to date on the working and effectiveness of ALMPs in New Zealand
     · Inventory of Labour Market Measures
     · Parental Leave And Carers Leave: International Provision And Research
     · Parental Leave in New Zealand 2005/2006 Evaluation
     · Plan of Action to Prevent People Trafficking
     · Strategies to Return Injured Workers to Sustainable Earnings - An International Literature Review
     · The impact of employment policy interventions
     · Work Capacity Assessment Trial, Phase One results, evaluation report
     · Youth Minimum Wage Reform and the Labour Market

All publications in subject category: Health & safety in employment

     · Aftermath - The Social and Economic Consequences of Workplace Injury and Illness
     · An Evaluation of Health and Safety Management Practices in the Hairdressing Industry
     · Effective Occupational Health Interventions in Agriculture
     · Evaluation of ACC Reforms: Case Study Research
     · Government Involvement in Health and Safety: a Literature Review
     · Health Outcomes in Former New Zealand Timber Workers Exposed To Pentachlorophenal (PCP)
     · How Health and Safety Makes Good Business Sense - A Summary of Research Findings
     · Improving Work-Related Road Safety in New Zealand - A Research Report
     · Investigation of Causative Factors Associated with Summertime Workplace Fatalities
     · Leptospirosis - Reducing the impact on New Zealand workplaces
     · Monitoring Report: Use of Methyl Bromide at the Port of Nelson
     · Position paper: Proposal to reduce WES-TWA for Methyl Bromide from 5PPM to 1PPM
     · Report of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Work Related Gradual Process Disease or Infection
     · Reporting on Workplace Health and Safety and Employment Relations: a stock-take of current practice
     · Risk Evaluation of Dioxin Exposure to Workers at Dow AgroSciences, New Plymouth
     · The Costs and Benefits of Complying with the HSE Act, 1992
     · The effects of occupational safety and health interventions