By Andrew Steele - 20 Feb 2013
If you are an employer, taking a relaxed approach to safety in
the workplace could expose your business to serious
consequences. In extreme cases such as Pike River, those
consequences were the tragedy of employees' deaths and the collapse
of the whole business.
By law, employers have wide duties to take all practicable steps
to ensure the safety of their employees while at work. Those
duties extend to taking steps to ensure that non-employees are not
harmed while in a place of work. Employees have corresponding
obligations to take practicable steps to ensure their own safety
and that they do not cause harm to others. The most serious
penalties for breaching health and safety legislation can include a
fine of up to $500,000. Over time, the Courts have steadily
increased the level of fines imposed.
While the requirement for employers to provide a safe workplace
is not new, it is important to keep an up-to-date written policy
regarding safety and to make sure any risks and hazards are managed
appropriately. All staff should be made aware of such risks.
Obviously, in more serious situations, protecting the lives of
employees and the employer's ability to trade are dependant on a
rigorous health and safety practice. Aside from being a legal
obligation, the potential benefits of complying with health and
safety legislation include preventing loss of production, reducing
ACC levies and increasing employee morale.
The Pike River disaster and resulting Report from the Royal
Commission of Inquiry has brought workplace health and safety back
to the forefront of employment obligations. The catalogue of
mismanagement and failure to address this fundamental duty to
employees is a stark framework for other employers to consider
their own responsibility, including potential oversights and
omissions. It makes good sense to invest time, energy and
resources into keeping employees safe.
Links:
Royal Commission Report on the Pike River Coal Mine
Tragedy
Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment - Health and Safety
information
Contact:
Employment team