The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) sets out who's responsible for workplace safety in New Zealand and what they have to do. Here's who it covers, what it requires and how to stay compliant.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) is New Zealand's main workplace safety law. It says who's responsible for keeping people safe at work and what they have to do about it. WorkSafe New Zealand (WorkSafe) enforces it.
HSWA isn't a paperwork law. It asks one question: have you done what's reasonably practicable to stop people getting hurt or sick because of your work? That duty reaches beyond your own employees to contractors, visitors and the public.
HSWA gives duties to four types of duty holders: PCBUs, officers, workers and other people at a workplace, such as visitors. Knowing which label fits you tells you which duties are yours.
A PCBU is a person conducting a business or undertaking. Most of the time it's an organisation, but a sole trader counts too.
A worker is anyone who does work for a PCBU in any capacity. That includes employees, contractors and subcontractors, labour hire staff, apprentices, trainees, people on work experience and volunteers who help regularly. Managers are workers too.
Officers steer the business. They include company directors, partners and anyone with significant influence over management, such as a chief executive. A health and safety manager or supervisor who advises or runs day-to-day work usually isn't an officer.
Every PCBU has one overarching duty. It must make sure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that its workers stay healthy and safe and that its work doesn't put other people at risk. WorkSafe's guide sets out what that covers.
"Reasonably practicable" sets the bar. You weigh how likely harm is, how severe it could be, what you know about the risk and what controls exist. Then you weigh the cost. You can skip a control only when its cost is grossly out of proportion to the risk.
Officers carry their own duty to exercise due diligence. That means showing the care, diligence and skill a reasonable officer would in the same position. WorkSafe's steps include keeping safety knowledge current and understanding the business's hazards. They also include making sure the right resources and processes exist and get used, then checking that all of it works.
Officers don't have to run safety day to day. But a passive role doesn't count as taking reasonable steps.
Workers must take reasonable care of their own safety and other people's, follow reasonable instructions and co-operate with safety policies. In return, they get a say. PCBUs must engage workers on matters that affect them, and the law protects workers from adverse treatment for raising a concern. Workers can also stop work if they reasonably believe it exposes them or someone else to a serious risk from immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.
HSWA sets the duties. Regulations sit under it and spell out what's required for specific risks, such as asbestos, hazardous substances and mining, plus general workplace facilities. WorkSafe's approved codes of practice and guidance then show how to meet those duties in practice.
Other laws can overlap. Where the Building Act 2004 also covers a risk, for example, HSWA lets you take its requirements into account. But you may still need to do more than that law asks to meet your HSWA duties.
In 2013, an independent taskforce found that New Zealand's workplace safety system was failing. The result was the biggest overhaul in 20 years, which produced HSWA and WorkSafe. The Act came into force in April 2016 and replaced the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.
The biggest shifts:
The PCBU, not just the employer, carries the duty. Whoever creates the risk manages it.
Officers have a personal due diligence duty. Directors can't leave safety to someone else.
Worker engagement is a legal duty. Representatives and committees are the two established ways to do it.
Health includes psychological harm. Stress and fatigue count alongside physical injury.
HSWA is changing again. The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 became law in July 2026, and most changes start 1 April 2027. Ittype: entry-hyperlink id: 19NqmsucgmehN7KadPXa5J, narrows duties for businesses with fewer than 20 workers to critical risks and gives qualifying approved codes of practice legal weight.
WorkSafe is the regulator. Its inspectors give advice, check workplaces and investigate serious incidents. If they find a breach, they can issue an improvement notice, which sets a deadline to fix the problem, or a prohibition notice, which stops work that carries a serious and immediate risk.
WorkSafe can also accept an enforceable undertaking, a binding promise to put things right that stands in place of prosecution, or it can prosecute. After a serious incident, a standard WorkSafe incident and accident investigation form helps you record what happened and what you did about it.
The most serious offences involve failing to meet a safety duty. Maximum fines depend on the offence and on who broke the law, according to WorkSafe. All amounts are in New Zealand dollars.
Offence | Worker or other person | Officer or self-employed PCBU | Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
Reckless conduct that exposes someone to a risk of death or serious injury or illness | Five years in prison or $300,000, or both | Five years in prison or $600,000, or both | $3 million |
Failing to meet a duty that exposes someone to a risk of death or serious injury or illness | $150,000 | $300,000 | $1.5 million |
Failing to meet a duty | $50,000 | $100,000 | $500,000 |
Courts can also order offenders to publicise the offence, put right the harm they caused, run a safety project or complete training. Insurance can't pay a HSWA fine.
Compliance starts with knowing your risks and controlling them. Then you keep the evidence.
A written plan puts your answers in one place. A job safety analysis is a practical starting point because it breaks a task into steps and flags the hazard in each. Use a risk assessment to rate each risk, then choose controls with the hierarchy of controls and give each one an owner and a review date.
Then build those controls into routinetype: entry-hyperlink id: 3WyTIrIrlIQYeFZF1Tzzqkso the checks happen on schedule. Review the plan after every incident and whenever the work changes.
Ask workers early. They know where the work gets risky. HSWA requires PCBUs to engage workers on matters that directly affect them and to give them real chances to improve safety. Representatives and committees work well, and so do unions or other representatives workers choose.
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