Page 69 - Build 151

Health and safety
amongst other things, asbestos, worker participation, engagement and participation and major hazard facilities will come into e ect.
Despite the suggestion that the govern- ment did a last-minute deal with owners of New Zealand’s worm farms, the key objectives of the new law have remained consistent throughout.
These are, essentially, to bring about a behavioural and cultural change in approaches to health and safety in New Zealand and to clarify that work practices can only be as safe as possible if everyone involved plays their part.
Obligation to work together
The HSW Act will impose obligations on a number of new duty holders, including persons conducting a business or under- taking (PCBU), o cers of the PCBU, workers and other persons at a workplace.
This is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other people a ected by the business or undertaking. The term PCBU broadly includes anyone that conducts a business or undertaking, whether alone or with others. It therefore includes companies as well as independent contractors running their own business.
Consult, cooperate and coordinate
With the exception of o cers, these new duty holders are broadly an amalgamation and recategorisation of duty holders under the existing legislation. However, there is an additional new obligation.
PCBUs with a health and safety duty relating to a matter must, so far as reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate with and coordinate activities with all other PCBUs who have a duty for that matter.
If prosecuted, a failure to comply with this ‘coordination obligation’ may result in
the PCBU being ned up to $100,000. This is in addition to any other penalties, including other nes, that might be imposed against the PCBU for other breaches of the Act.
Of all the changes made by the Act, this new coordination obligation will arguably have the greatest impact on some partici- pants in the building industry.
On all but the smallest construction projects, there will generally be a number of di erent PCBUs involved, working together or alongside each other. In such circum- stances, each of the PCBUs must comply with its own health and safety duties, even if another duty holder has the same duty.
Where duties overlap, the PCBUs will have to communicate with each other about the actions each proposes to ensure the safety of workers on site and others who might be a ected.
The objective will be to ensure there is a coordinated health and safety manage- ment plan that everyone on site is aware of, understands and has had the opportunity to have input into.
As the duties are ongoing, the PCBUs will also need to monitor each other to ensure everyone is doing what they agreed.
An important change is that parties without a direct contractual relationship will have a duty to ensure the health and safety of each other’s workers where their work might a ect those workers. However, PCBUs are only required to discharge their duties to the extent to which they have the ability to in uence and control the matter.
Worker participation needed
Another change is that all PCBUs must have some form of worker participation and engagement to ensure their workers have an opportunity to be involved in health and safety matters.
A PCBU can comply with this duty by having health and safety representatives or
a health and safety committee. Following a last-minute change, PCBUs with fewer than 20 workers not in high-risk industries won’t have to establish these formal mechanisms. They can instead rely on informal practices.
However, this exception will not apply to PCBUs in the building industry as ‘building construction’, ‘heavy and civil engineering construction’ and ‘construction services’ will most likely be designated as high-risk industries.
Regardless of how few workers it has, a PCBU in the building industry will have to initiate an election for health and safety representatives or set up a health and safety committee if requested by one or more of its workers.
What this means in practice
When the new Act is enforced, all PCBUs in the building industry will face increased pressure to share information on their health and safety systems and activities with other PCBUs in a project.
No doubt many are already doing this. Others will need to change their practices quickly to bring them in line with the new requirements.
Some of these PCBUs may be competitors, which could present challenges for some participants who prefer to keep their work methods secret.
Increased attention to coordinating and monitoring health and safety activities and the greater worker participation may result in higher costs in the short term while everyone gets to grips with new ways of working.
However, despite the potential for increased nancial costs in the short term, the strong hope is that these changes will encourage active communication about health and safety across businesses. With everyone playing their part, ultimately, this will deliver safer workplaces.
Build 151 — December 2015/Janaury 2016 — 67
FEATURE SECTION